Ufa Rail Bridge

Construction of the bridge began in 1886 and was completed in 1888. The bridge provided a crossing for trains over the river Belaya in the direction of Ufa, and made it possible to extend the Trans-Siberian line up to Chelyabinsk (1892).[2][3]

The design was made by Prof. Nikolai Beleloubski, in compliance with the building standards of 1884. Steelwork elements were manufactured at the famous Votkinsk ironworks (now the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant) in Udmurtia, where starting from 1871 open hearth furnaces began to be widely used that made it possible to produce rails for the country's railroad network.

The bridge consisted of 6 spans, each of 109-meter (358 feet) bowstring arch through trusses with double lattice girders. This design involved careful and exact alignment of truss members and chords manufactured of cast iron that was considered to be advanced for its time. Beleloubski also proposed an innovative constructive solution: the transverse floor-beams of trusses were connected by hinges to bottom chords. Such a type of structural support was considered to be ground-breaking in the days of Beleloubski, because it allowed to reduce secondary stresses in trusses. This design received the gold medal at the Edinburg Exposition 1890 and later came to be known as "the Russian support method".[4]

The official opening of the bridge to the public, September 8, 1888.

On 8 September 1888, the bridge was solemnly opened for traffic by Minister of Railway Transport, admiral Konstantin Posyet. A pedestrian path was opened on the bridge: for this purpose they made wooden sidewalks (subsequently the movement of pedestrians was forbidden).

The piers of the bridge were reinforced by starlings (cutwaters) pointing upstream to break up pieces of ice floating downstream during the annual spring thaw.

A photograph of the bridge in the early 20th century

In June 1919, the battles of the Russian Civil War took place directly around the town of Ufa. In order to maintain control over the town at any cost, the retreating troops of Admiral Kolchak blew up the sixth (right-bank) span of the bridge. The explosion was carried out by shelling of cars with explosives previously established in the span. One end of the truss fell into the river and strongly deformed. But this didn't help the Whites to achieve their goal, because the famous 25th Rifle Division of Chapaev captured the town on 9 June 1919.

Ufa rail bridge1919

After the retreat of Kolchak, the assault troops of the Red Army moved further, while their rear units remained on the right bank near Ufa. Meanwhile, the bridge crossing was in urgent need of rehabilitation. Since there was no heavy construction equipment available, manual labor was only hope. It was decided to use scaffolding for putting the fallen truss back into place. Inch by inch, step by step, as if they brought heavy stones to the top of the Egyptian pyramids, but nobody seemed to care about the times of Antiquity.

The restoration involved approximately 2,500 construction workers and railway engineers. Day by day, week after week, and the fallen truss did no longer towered so desperate over the river. The bridge was successfully restored in the same year through the temporary installation of the damaged truss, followed by a complete overhaul, during which it was replaced with a new span structure designed by Prof. Lavr Proskouriakov in compliance with the building standards of 1907. Proskouriakov had designed the largest rail bridges in Russian Empire over the Yenisey and Amur rivers.

Thanks to careful preparation, the construction workers replaced the damaged span with minimal traffic disruption - in just 11 hours. It took 7 hours for pushing the old span off the piers by using jack-ups, and it took 3 hours 45 minutes for putting the new truss into place. On October 10, 1919, Vladimir Lenin sent a congratulatory telegram to the bridge-building crew to express his appreciation for their hardwork.[5]

In the archive of the Ufa City Maintenance of Way, there is an old data sheet on the bridge that contains the following record made in 1928:

"...Trains with double headed E class steam locomotives and American gondola cars are not permitted to cross the bridge. During the passage of a single headed E class steam locomotive, the maximum speed shall not exceed 8 km per hour (5 miles per hour)".[5]

In the 20th century, the bridge was strengthened and modified several times. So, in the period between 1937 and 1939, the truss superstructure was substantially strengthened with oversize removal and addition of reinforcing metal up to 4% of the weight of the trusses.

In the period 1949-1951, the bridge was rebuilt for double-track. The renovation was carried out by the work crew Nº417. The bridge’s piers were widened on the upstream side by the erection of ferroconcrete supports (pylons) on the foundations of the former cutwaters that were no longer relevant and unified trusses designed by Proektstalkonstruktsia in 1944 for Class N-7 loading were installed on them.

In the period 1991-2001, new modern trusses designed for Class S-14 loading replaced the original ones. The replacement work was carried out by the open joint-stock company Transstroimost. And given that all the old trusses were replaced, there is no need to be concerned about the strength of the structure and the safety of the crossing.

Ufa rail bridge across the Ufa River carries double tracked rail lines over the Ufa River. It is also located in the city of Ufa, near the station of Urakovo (Shaksha).

A photograph of the rail bridge across the Ufa river in the early 20th century

Its design and history were almost the same as the bridge over the Belaya River. It was built and "cured" almost the same 2 years later. It was also designed by Prof. Nikolai Beleloubski in compliance with the building standards of 1884, but had only three spans, each 109 metres (358,432 ft) long.

During the Civil War in 1919, the third left-bank span of the bridge was blown up by the Kolchak troops, and collapsed. In 1920, the destroyed truss was replaced with a new one designed by Prof. Proskouriakov in compliance with the building standards of 1907.

In the period 1939-1940, the truss superstructure was substantially strengthened with oversize removal and addition of reinforcing metal up to 4% of the weight of the trusses.

In the period 1951-1952, the bridge was rebuilt for double-track. The renovation was carried out by the work crew Nº414. The bridge’s piers were widened on the upstream side by the erection of ferroconcrete supports (pylons) on the foundations of the former cutwaters that were no longer relevant and unified trusses designed by Ghiprotrans in 1931 for Class N-7 loading were installed on them.

In the period 2001-2002, new modern trusses designed for Class S-14 loading replaced the original ones. The replacement work was carried out by the open joint-stock company USK MOST.

View of the rail bridge in Ufa and the mouth of the Dyoma River

• When the bridge was completed in 1888, an artificial channel was dug out to straighten the course of the Dyoma River. It begins approximately 100 metres (329 ft) downstream of the present-day highway bridge near the cafe 'Goldfish', and runs towards the Belaya directly. The river channel was straightened in order to avoid duplication of bridge crossing over the Dyoma River. In fact, the Dyoma formerly emptied itself into the Belaya a few kilometres downstream, into its present oxbow lake, which had been the main channel until 1854. The present-day course of the Belaya River, which now girdles about Nizhegorodka (the Lower city) was then a wide duct, exceedingly low, in fact fordable in many places. The area that surrounds now Kozorez village was a big island then.
• The first color pictures of the rail bridge across the Belaya were taken by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in 1910. Photography was carried out by the method of registering on a single glass plate three separate black and white images taken through the blue, green and red filters.[6][7]
• Slightly further upstream of the bridge lies a small island that changes annually its outlines, becoming a peninsula in the summer. The emergence of the island is connected to the fact that two barges carrying bread sank in this place at the beginning of the 20th century, which formed the basis for further sedimentation.

• Nikolai Beleloubski
• Lavr Proskuryakov
• Trans-Siberian Railway

• Ufa City Bridges (Black & White) (in Russian)
• Education in Russia for Foreigners: University cities of Russia. Ufa
• Official website of Ufa
• Ufa virtual tour
• 360 Panoramas of Ufa
• Photos of Ufa

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