Novosibirsk Rail Bridge

Choosing a building location for the future bridge has proven to be a difficult task. According to the original plan, the railway line was expected to be routed through the town of Tomsk. This entailed the construction of the bridge about 55 km west of Tomsk, at the place where the Ob has always swollen with spring meltwater. It was not suitable for construction and meant that a new location needed to be chosen. This work is generally understood to be done by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky (known not only as a railway engineer, but also as a writer). He proposed to choose a narrow site with rocky outcrops on the surface that was situated about 200 km southwest of Tomsk. Nowadays it is known as a city of Novosibirsk. It was just beyond the north extremity the Salair Ridge.

In late August of 1891, a plenary meeting of three major state officials took place in the Big Krivoschekovo village. The participants included Head of Department of construction of railways Konstantin Mikhailovsky, State Counsellor Vladimir Berezin (future contractor), as well as Commander of exploration group Vikenti-Ignatsy Royetski. They examined the hydrographic data submitted by Royetski and took their final decision to recommend a place for the future bridge crossing, where a local cattle wade was situated. That is how the building location for the future bridge was chosen.

The bridge was designed by Prof. Nikolai Belelyubsky, an outstanding Russian civil engineer and well-known scientist in the field of structural mechanics and engineering, who developed the projects for a great variety of bridges in the Russian Empire.

The truss superstructure was composed of nine spans, each of 109-meter (358 feet) bowstring arch through trusses with double lattice girders. This design involved the proper alignment of truss members and chords that were manufactured of cast iron - a very advanced material for its time.

Due to its high stability, the double-lattice structure decreased the length of panels and made the bridge's parts easier. The presence of a support column in trusses allowed a simple design of cradles and baseframes, as well it facilitated the design of connections between bearing floor beams and trusses. Beleloubski also used the device of 'free carriageway' that earlier had been already used during the construction of the Ufa Rail Bridge and later came to be known as "the Russian support method".

Steelwork elements used in the bridge superstructure amounting to 4423 tons were manufactured at the famous Votkinsk ironworks in Udmurtia under the supervision of contractor General V.I. Berezin. The height above low water-mark was 17 metres (56 ft).

The spans of the bridge rested on masonry piers made of local granite. The piers were reinforced by starlings (cutwaters) pointing upstream to break up pieces of ice floating downstream during the annual spring thaw.

The bridge was under construction for 4 years, and the expense of its erection was about 2 million rubles. In 1896, load tests were carried out, during which 4 steam engines crossed over the bridge, and on 31 March 1897, it was solemnly opened to traffic. A pedestrian path was opened on the bridge: for this purpose wooden sidewalks were laid (subsequently the movement of pedestrians on the bridge was forbidden).

All stages of the construction were managed by the engineer G.M.Budagov. He remembered with gratitude the time of his cooperation with Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky during construction of this railway section, bridge and station. He said: "The activities of our witty, talented and excellent comrade Nikolai G.Garin-Mikhailovsky have made the internal life of the builders and their work some especially colourful and pleasant."

The appearance of the bridge in 2003

In the 1930s, the old bridge lost its value and started to be used, as a rule, for passenger trains only. This was due to the construction of a new double track railroad bridge (dubbed the Komsomolsky bridge) was completed, and a new cargo line around Novosibirsk's center was launched.

In April 1984, the installation of the second main spans was completed. The work train N429 of the Western Siberian Railway erected new spans consisted of 15.7 thousand metal elements amounting to 4.5 thousand tons.

The construction of new spans began in 1974. For this purpose, approaches were made of 78 thousand cubic metres of soil; these were covered by a road leading to the left-bank abutment for ensuring access of metal, concrete and other building materials to the construction site.

For analyzing the adequacy of the piers, a group of experts from Leningrad drilled their bodies and the bedrocks upon which they had rested. It was considered feasible to install the new trusses on the old piers. The Ministry of Railways of the USSR took the decision to erect the new spans with subsequent dismantling of the old trusses, as their load-carrying capacity didn't meet modern requirements anymore. The reconstruction project was developed by the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineers (Russian: ГИПРОТРАНСПУТЬ).

After the commissioning of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric power plant, spring ice drifts ended around the city, and so the function of the cutwaters was no longer relevant. The bridge builders erected seven ferroconcrete supports (pylons) on the foundations of the former cutwaters and constructed two new abutments. The installation of 100 metres long trusses between the piers was carried out by the balanced cantilever method (from pier to pier) with the use of cranes passing through the top and inside of the trusses.

The new bridge's spans were stronger and larger, but not as attractive as the old ones, which had well served for almost a century on the great Siberian Railway. The new spans were assembled with the use of high-strength bolts, which allowed to quickly install the new spans without scaffolding or any floating means.

By 1991, traffic on the old bridge had been blocked and its dismantling began in 2000.[1] By now, all the old spans have been removed and the bridge reverted to a single track operation. However, the old piers and abutments still exist that allows the bridge to be widened to double-track, if necessary. Besides, one of the old spans has been kept as a museum piece on the riverside promenade of the city.

• Nikolai Belelyubsky
• Ufa Rail Bridge
• Trans-Siberian Railway

• The first railroad bridge over the River Ob'
• The Trans Siberian railway bridge over the Ob river at Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia
• Stock Photo - the Trans Siberian railway bridge over the Ob river at Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia