Under the contract for. reconstruction of the Warszawa Zachodnia station, Budimex has constructed a railway viaduct, located at km 4+787 of railway line No. 1. The single-span structure, 118.5 m long and 16.5 m high, weighs 1700 tons and was built as a single element using the longitudinal sliding technology. The viaduct is a unique investment on a national scale – it was built as a single load-bearing structure for two railway tracks with a turnout. This solution has not been used before under this type of contracts. The manufacturer of the structure is Mostostal Kraków.
Work on the construction of the new viaduct began in May this year, and already in the autumn passengers coming to Warszawa Zachodnia from Włochy and Al. Jerozolimskie could observe how the steel structure of the viaduct is pushed over.
The size of this building can be compared to a five-storey residential building. Its weight is as much as a freight train with 25 wagons loaded with coal. In turn, the area of the facility reaches the size of 13 volleyball courts.
The structure was moved to its final place so that the old reinforced concrete viaduct could be demolished from under the structure before the end of October. The steel structure was based on reinforced concrete supports, for which over 20 thousand were made. m3 of the excavation and was founded on over 450 pcs. prefabricated driven piles with a total length of over 4 km.
The steel structure of the new viaduct was delivered in elements and integrated already on the construction site behind the northern support. The manufacturer of the structure, Mostostal Kraków, made and delivered it on time. The structure was designed as a lattice structure with a downward drive, in which the upper and lower chords have a box cross-section, while the cross-braces and bracing were made with box and I-sections. The usable platform of the facility is an orthotropic plate. This type of plate provides greater strength and can carry higher loads.
– It is worth noting that the steel structure weighs 1700 tons. The process of its insertion lasted a total of five days and was divided into two stages. For technological reasons, it took about two months between the two sliding stages to complete the merging of the steel structure. It was slid over the existing reinforced concrete structure and three active railway lines. Interestingly, we used the structure of the old building to slide the structure, which we prepared for this purpose – says Jakub Konkiewicz, Contract Director Warszawa Zachodnia at Budimex.
The main assumptions in the design and construction of the viaduct were:
- ensuring the maintenance of construction phasing/staging in accordance with the construction design,
- limitation/reduction of making temporary adjustments in the phasing of works carried out under the viaduct due to the possibility of carrying out the works independently,
- minimizing difficulties in current train traffic carried out on a continuous basis, especially under the facility.
Warszawa Zachodnia is one of the largest investments of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A., worth over PLN 1.9 billion. At the same time, it is a strategic station in Poland in terms of the number of trains running. On average, about 1000 agglomeration, regional, long-distance national and international trains pass through it daily. It is carried out as part of the OPI&E 5.1-13 project entitled: “Works on the cross-city line in Warsaw on the section Warszawa Wschodnia – Warszawa Zachodnia”.
