Indian Railways, which is on a growth trajectory, is now marching towards showing a classic example of an engineering marvel with the newly proposed Pamban Bridge.
Here’s what you need to know about India’s first vertical lift railway sea bridge:
Indian Railways commenced construction work on the 2.05 km new Pamban Railway Bridge at Mandapam, which will connect Rameswaram to the mainland in Tamil Nadu.
The new bridge will help the railways to run faster trains, carry more load and increase the traffic volume between Pamban and Rameswaram.
Over two kilometer long bridge, likely to cost 250 cr, will have a 63-metre stretch, which will rise parallel to the deck to allow access to the ships.
While the current bridge has the ‘shaser’ rolling lift technology in which the bridge opens horizontally, in the new one, a 63-metre section will rise upwards remaining parallel to the deck, to allow ships to pass. This would be done using sensors on each end.
Talking to ANI, General Manager of Southern Railway said, “The old Pamban bridge was commissioned on February 24, 1914. So, almost 108 years have passed, and now the time has come to move forward with new technologies. Its Estimated cost is the new bridge 250 crores and the target is to complete it this year.”
Giving information about this bridge, Hridayesh Kumar, Divisional Engineer and Incharge, Pamban Bridge said, “The total length of the existing bridge structure is 2,058 meters which includes 146 spans of steel girders. There are 145 spans of 12.20 meters and one navigational span. 61.0 m. The navigational span is also known as the Scherzer rolling lift span after the railway engineer William Scherzer, who invented it.”
“Only 1.5 meters of vertical clearance is available between the high tide level and the lower part of the girder resulting in seawater splashing on the girders. In comparison, the new bridge will have 100 spans of 18.3 meters and a navigational span of 63 It will be 3.0 meters higher than the existing bridge with a navigational air clearance of 22.0 meters above sea level,” he added.
Referring to the technology for the operation of the new bridge for movement of ships, Kumar said, “Due to the vertical lift, the entire horizontal width of 63 meters will be available for navigation. Also, taking into account the entire bridge including the navigation span. Will be designed after that. Focus on the electrification plan of the Railways and maintain the speed of the trains at 80 kmph.”
“Compared to the existing manual operation and control, the new bridge will have electro-mechanical controlled systems which will be linked with train control systems. Due to the heavy flow of water, it is also proposed to deploy state-of-the-art technologies like stainless steel. The new bridges reinforcement, composite sleepers and a long lasting painting system,” Kumar said.