Chenab Bridge, Jammu & Kashmir (India)

Chenab Bridge, soon to be the world’s highest railway bridge, is a key component of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) that will eventually connect the remote Kashmir valley to the Indian railway network via Jammu station.
The 1’315m long bridge has a main arch span of 467m across the deep gorge of the Chenab river.

Elevated at an imposing 362m above the water level, the bridge is the highest of its class in the world. The geographic location and rough terrain not only provided for enormous construction challenges, but also for extreme requirements in terms of wind speeds, seismic zoning and redundancy.

LAP as a sub-consultant to WSP Finland Ltd. carried out the global analysis of the arch bridge and the erection stage analysis using the SOFiSTiK software package. The piece-by-piece erection of the arch using a cable crane with 30 ton weight limitation was implemented in detail. This allowed for precise feedback to the as-built data and greatly supported a smooth erection within tolerances.