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The Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project achieved a major engineering milestone after workers successfully launched a 130-meter-long steel bridge span over Indian Railway tracks near Tralsi village in the Bharuch district of Gujarat. The newly positioned section marks the completion of 230 meters of the steel bridge out of its total 330-meter length.
The bridge crosses the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) tracks between the Surat and Vadodara section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. The structure is a three-span bridge that consists of a 100-meter and 130-meter continuous span, alongside an additional 100-meter simply supported span. The 130-meter section was moved into position on May 16, 2026. This specific span measures approximately 18 meters in height and 15.5 meters in width, and it weighs around 2,900 metric tonnes. Engineers previously erected the 1,500-metric-tonne, 100-meter simply supported span in-situ at the construction site in March 2026. The remaining 100-meter continuous span weighs around 1,600 metric tonnes and will also be assembled on-site. Once workers finish the final section, the entire bridge structure will have a total weight of around 6,100 metric tonnes. The press release noted that the steel bridges were fabricated at a workshop in the Karbon Factory in Umergaon, Gujarat. Designers built these structures to have a 100-year lifespan. Construction teams assembled the 130-meter span on temporary trestles at a height of 14 meters above the ground. Workers used approximately 1,21,373 Tor-Shear Type High Strength (TTHS) bolts, a C5 painting system, and metallic bearings to construct the section. An automatic mechanism equipped with two semi-automatic jacks moved the massive structure into place. Each jack is capable of imparting a pushing force of 250 tons using mac-alloy bars. The launching process took place under carefully coordinated traffic arrangements on the active freight tracks. These temporary traffic adjustments ensured the safety and precision of the bridge launch. The phased execution of the engineering work also minimized disruptions to ongoing freight movement along the corridor. The project requires the construction of multiple steel structures across its route. Out of the 17 steel bridges planned for the Gujarat portion of the project, 14 are now complete. Project blueprints show that there are 28 steel bridges planned in total for the entire Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train corridor. (ANI)
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