The longest metro bridge in the world, which is located in Novosibirsk, is considered the most unique construction project. Incredible information, which is hard to believe that the length of this wonderful bridge is 2145 meters, makes idle tourists open their mouths with admiration. But the locals are already accustomed to this miracle of technology, and calmly look out the window when they pass over the bridge over the majestic

Briefly about the prehistory of the construction of the bridge

When the movement on the Novosibirsk metro bridge was opened, visitors to the city ask. And, of course, the length of service of the bridge also commands respect. At the end of 1985, it was opened, and since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge!

The bridge began to be built in accordance with the current traffic situation, which requires immediate resolution. The fact is that Novosibirsk is located along the Ob, and the beautiful river mercilessly divided the city into two parts, between which there was no large-scale communication.

The design engineers had to rack their brains before they managed to design a monolithic metal beam with seven spans. Moreover, it had a length of 896 m with an individual design developed by specialists of not a simple, but a box-shaped structure.

5 years of metro bridge construction

It is difficult to imagine a colossus standing on supports and weighing as much as 6200 tons. And how was the bridge built? I had to use the stepwise thrust method. No wonder that the pace of construction stretched over five long years. Here it was just important not to rush, and go consistently towards the cherished goal, and the result exceeded all expectations

Pleasant trip on the metro bridge

Passengers are now passing through a small gallery that connects the bridge tunnel with the coastal part of the metro. Further, their train moves along the bridge span, bypassing the gray concrete box, then they fall directly into the green box, called the gallery. This gallery extends from the bridge to the very cliff in the area of ​​a small street adjacent to the Ob.

How it all began

According to old-timers, in 1980, an indicative peg was driven in on the banks of the Ob with the promising inscription "Axis of the bridge"

And then the day came when its construction began. The first sector of the bridge-building special squad No. 38 successfully began preparatory operations for the construction of the bridge. They consisted in the construction of a service center, the laying of the necessary communications, and at the same time the construction of compressor units began.

Before that, as usual, various options for solving the transport problem between the right bank and the left bank were discussed. And common sense won. We decided to build a bridge. It turned out to be long, more than 2 kilometers. In addition, part of the communication passes directly over the river, that is, the bridge starts much further from the river, and also ends much further from it.

Since 1986, the Novosibirsk metro bridge has not had any competitors all over the world.

The history of the construction of the metro bridge

bridge design

View of the metro bridge from the right bank.

The construction of the bridge was dictated by the serious transport problem of Novosibirsk, which consists in linking the left and right banks with a reliable transport system. The design of the metro bridge was developed by specialists from design institutes - Lengiprotransmost (now OJSC Transmost) and Novosibmetroproekt in 1978. The above-water part of the metro bridge is a solid metal seven-span beam 896 m long of an individual box-type design. Channel V-shaped supports are made of monolithic reinforced concrete and are located along the axes of the supports of the Communal Bridge. Since the first road bridge across the Ob was built even before the construction of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric power station, its supports were designed for heavy ice conditions, in contrast to them, the V-shaped supports of the metro bridge are light and elegant. The installation of the beam on supports, the weight of which is 6200 tons, was carried out by phased longitudinal thrusts from one bank to another. Construction lasted exactly five years - from February 1980 to February 1985.
The Novosibirsk metro bridge consists of three parts: a small gallery connecting the bridge with the elevated part of the Rechnoy Vokzal station, the bridge itself, a gray reinforced concrete box, and a green gallery box from the bridge to the cliff near Gorskaya Street. The bridge piers are V-shaped.

One of the main bridge crossing projects. (Image is clickable).

In 1975, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the passage of the subway line through the floodplain and the channel of the Ob. Among the main possible options, the following were worked out: crossing the Ob under a channel in granites with tunneling by mining, along a metro bridge built above the Oktyabrsky Communal Bridge, and along the bottom with successively filling islands with a change in the channel of the Ob.
The construction of the lining of the subway tunnels within the fill island was to be carried out in an open way. The city insisted on tunneling under the river bed. This option was also supported by representatives of the Civil Defense - after all, at that time the metro was considered as a potential bomb shelter in case of war.

Accepted metro bridge project.

In addition, according to the then existing standards, it was impossible to have two bridges so close to each other. The operators also supported - they were afraid that in winter the metro cars, passing through the bridge and overpass, would cool down, and when entering the tunnels, moisture would condense on them, which would lead to a quick failure of the rolling stock. Specialists of Novosibgrazhdanproject came up with a proposal to lay a metro line along the Oktyabrsky bridge. However, the implementation of this proposal would require the closure of traffic on the bridge for at least two years, which the city authorities could not agree to.

This sketch shows the unbuilt Sportivnaya station.

Recalls the head of the structural design department V.A. Titov: "I developed a variant of crossing the Ob along the Oktyabrsky bridge with the construction of the second tier of the bridge. The calculations of structural solutions showed that it is possible to make supports for the second tier of the bridge on the existing supports. It was planned to carry out road traffic along the canvas of the second tier of the bridge with trestle parts towards the GPNTB and Gorskaya, and lay the subway lines along the roadway and keep the movement of electric transport.The City Executive Committee considered the feasibility study of the subway with wide participation of specialists.Emotional speech by K.K.Yakobson, one of the authors of the Oktyabrsky bridge, was especially memorable tier, who declared that he would not allow the architecture and harmony of the Oktyabrsky bridge to be violated, and if this option was accepted for construction, he would throw himself off the bridge into the Ob.
When considering the feasibility study in the examination, the option of a deep tunnel was rejected almost immediately, mainly due to the high cost. And then an idea arose. A specialist of the Giprotransmost Institute, Rudomazin, who was at that time the chief engineer of the Dimitrovsky Bridge project, proposed using the Oktyabrsky Bridge, but placing the metro tunnels on consoles next to the bridge on both sides of it. In the cross-sectional drawing, these two tunnels resembled ears, and in everyday life, when discussing the project, this option was called that - a bridge with ears. The option turned out to be very tempting, and Glavgosexpertiza recommended it for study in the technical project.

The project of the metro bridge with a gallery in the surface part.

Indeed, this option was the cheapest and made it possible to build the subway without closing traffic on the bridge, but when the designers began to work it out in detail, it turned out that all the advantages of this option are negated by the great complexity of the intersection with the railway and the construction of the metro station.
Despite all the efforts, the designers could not offer a technical solution that would suit the railway workers and would be feasible in practice. Thus, after long discussions, the option of a bridge crossing with a separate metro bridge was adopted.
The project of the metro bridge was carried out by Lengiprotransmost specialists, who have experience in designing such bridges. “On the tablets,” recalls V.Ya. will hold. As a result, the windows had to be abandoned. "
On January 12, 1978, the Gosstroy of the USSR approved a variant of a stand-alone metro bridge developed by Lengiprotransmost (complex GIP S.V. Tsygantsov, GIP of the channel metal part K.P. Vinogradov). The total length is 2145 meters, of which the river part is 896 meters, made in the form of a box-shaped rifled double-track closed seven-span structure weighing 6200 tons of low-alloy steel.

In this drawing, we see the unfinished station "Sportivnaya" with the unrealized project of the sports complex.

The approach floodplain parts of the metro bridge were designed in the form of a reinforced concrete overpass with a closed gallery made of reinforced concrete shell panels made using shock technology (the so-called "shock concrete"). The shells could not be manufactured by Novosibirsk plants and Novosibmetroproekt redesigned them using the profiled steel flooring of the "sea wave" color proposed by the Moscow Glavtonnelmetrostroy, which was in short supply at that time. At first, it was proposed to abandon the gallery on the overpass of the metro bridge altogether, but Novosibmetroproekt rejected this "African option", proving this to Moscow by the harsh operating conditions of such facilities in Siberia and the impossibility of reaching the design intensity of train traffic with an interval of 1.5 minutes with open tracks due to increase in 3 times the length of the braking distance on rails exposed to atmospheric precipitation. There was a lot of controversy over the requirements for fire resistance of a metal channel span. Novosibmetroproekt had to literally “knock out” a decision on this issue in the Gosstroy of the USSR, as a result of which an entry appeared in the SNiP for the design of the metro about not presenting fire resistance requirements for non-combustible superstructures of metro bridges.

Start of construction

In the summer of 1980, the first peg with the inscription: "Axis of the bridge" was driven in on the bank of the Ob.

On June 17, 1980, the first section of the bridge construction detachment No. 38 began preparatory work for the construction of the bridge. A foreman's house was built on the left bank, the laying of communications and the construction of a compressor station began. Construction work began in August. The team of M. Dolgikh, a laureate of the USSR Council of Ministers Prize, began the construction of channel supports on the Ob River. The greatest difficulty for the builders was the construction of overpasses, especially the left-bank one (32 spans of 33 meters each).

The main work began in August 1980 with the construction of channel supports.

October 24, 1981.

Left Coast.

The supports are made of monolithic reinforced concrete.

Construction of the initial left-bank and right-bank supports of the metro bridge.

End of October 1981. Right bank support.

February 2, 1982

On December 10, 1982, the construction of the channel supports of the metro bridge was completed. Photo: March 3, 1983.

March 11, 1983.

October 25, 1983. Construction of the overpass part of the metro bridge.

32 spans of 33 meters each.

Right bank overpass. View of the construction site of the Rechnoy Vokzal station.

The right-bank overpass consists of only four spans. For the manufacture of 33-meter prestressed reinforced concrete beams, a special workshop had to be built at the industrial site of Bridge Crew No. 38. The production of the same beams was also mastered by the Gornovsky Specialized Reinforced Concrete Plant. Together, all 210 beams were made. Their installation was carried out by A. Melnikov's team.

The right-bank overpass is partially built into the ground lobby of the Rechnoy Vokzal station. The span structures of the right-bank part consist of six reinforced concrete beams from 16.5 to 33 meters long. The variable length of the spans is due to the peculiarities of the urban layout. Structurally, the flyovers are a metal box, the walls and roof of which are covered with corrugated board - a two-tier metal orthotropic tile. In the walls of the flyovers along the entire length there are window openings 2x2 m in size.

Construction and sliding of superstructures in the above-water part of the bridge

March 12, 1983. The assemblers have started assembling the metal superstructure.

The first meters of span structures were assembled. Beginning of the move.

The galleries of the bridge were made at the plant of metal structures of the Soyuzstalkonstruktsiya association. The installation of the gallery was entrusted to one of the best teams of the Sibstalkonstruktsiya trust, headed by Anatoly Lysenko. The design of superstructures and the sliding method were used for the first time in the history of domestic metro construction. Now we will clearly see the whole process of mounting and sliding span structures.

Parts of the span structures of the bridge before lifting and installation.

Installation of the main beams with an M-45 crane. Strapovka.

Further, the structures were lifted onto specially constructed reinforced structures of the overpass, where they were mounted and connected into a single whole.

The span elements are welded from low-alloy steel grade 15 KhSND with field connections on high-strength bolts with a diameter of 24 mm.

Installation of bridge structures.

Further, with the help of hydraulic jacks, the connected span structures were pushed forward for sliding.

The steel "snake" of the metro bridge stretches towards the right bank.

On the "nose" of the overhead structure, in order to avoid bending and to simplify the process of stretching and placing on the bridge supports, an advance back was installed - an advanced mounting console. With its help, bridge structures in the process of pushing easily entered the supports.

The metal structure of the above-water part of the bridge is supported on the support platforms by powerful trolley beds, which can freely move along the support platforms, which eliminates the possibility of deformation of the structure during significant linear temperature "elongations" and "shortenings".

Work was carried out on the banks of the Ob both in the heat and in severe frosts. And then one day, on October 25, 1983, an accident occurred during the sliding. Due to the low temperature, the metal of the vanback, the leading mounting console, could not stand it.

A metal support was urgently erected to eliminate the situation. According to one version, the reason for this event was that the front was made of material that did not correspond to the project.

The head of the MUP of the customer's department for the construction of underground transport facilities, N.B. Khvan, says: "... that evening, nothing seemed to portend complications. I and the head of the section of bridge construction team No. 38 Vladimir Yakovlevich Ignatiev whiled away the time talking, tired, but in general satisfied with one more day, which brought us closer to our goal - the launch of the metro, when an alarm signal came over the radio: the front end of the steel span "pecked" us. We were blown away by the wind. On the car - and on the bridge. one of the cables seemed to break, With the help of which the structure moved. Imagine a multi-ton bulk, pecking with its "nose" ... Now it is not customary to talk about the heroism, selflessness of working people, but what the bridge builders did in the shortest possible time, returning everything to working condition, I can only call a feat. "

In a short time, a new forward back was built, taking into account all the wishes and conditions, after which the sliding of the structures continued.

August 24, 1984.

August 30, 1984.

There is very little left of the right bank. September 1984

Last flight.

The height of the supports is 25 meters.

On January 31, 1985, the integrated assembly teams of bridge crew No. 38 completed the sliding of the metal superstructure of the metro bridge.
The "box" weighing 6200 tons was installed with pinpoint accuracy.

Completion of construction

Construction of the station "Sportivnaya".

Fragment of the flyover at the portal.

The beginning of the construction of the portal walls.

On March 15, 1985, the team of the "Sibstalkonstruktsiya" trust began to assemble the metal structures of the metro bridge gallery.

The supporting frame of the overpass gallery is made of steel frames, the enclosing structures are made of profiled metal flooring with glazing.

The construction of the supporting frame of the gallery.

In the walls of the flyovers along the entire length there are window openings 2x2 meters in size.

Completion of work on the construction of a gallery in the trestle part of the bridge.

October 22, 1985.

The construction of the left-bank overpass is completed.

The right-bank flyover of the bridge over Bolshevistskaya Street was covered with a span structure 33 meters long, this solution corresponded to the approved technical design and was irreproachable from the point of view of legislation on capital construction. However, for its implementation, it is necessary, in order to comply with the bridge clearance, to cut the carriageway of Bolshevistskaya Street by 0.7 m under the bridge, rebuild all communications laid under the road and sidewalks, and somehow organize drainage from the resulting pit.

A solution was found - to break the span of 33 meters into two equal ones, to install an additional support on the dividing strip of the carriageway, to design span structures of an individual design with a reduced construction height (Suggestor V.D. Shaposhnikov). Thus, Bolshevik Street was preserved in its original form.

Installation of structures of the upper structure of the track.

October 19, 1985.

On the night of December 19-20, it was planned to test the structures of the metro bridge under load. Four five-car trains were prepared. Each wagon was loaded with 640 sandbags. The weight of the bag is 50 kg. The total weight of the test load on the bridge structure was to be 1,300 tons. The sacks were loaded into the wagons by the soldiers of the disciplinary battalion of the Siberian Military District. First, two trains went to the Studencheskaya station, two stopped at the River Station.

A team of bridge builders in the last days of construction.

By noon, preparations for testing the bridge were completed, then all four trains entered its metal box and stretched evenly along the entire length of the bridge. Previously, employees of the NIIZhT laboratory installed devices that record the parameters of the behavior of steel structures. No deviations from the norms were registered. The commission gave permission for the operation of the metro bridge. The conclusion of the commission: the bridge was built reliably, works well, easily copes with the record weight.

Metro bridge today

Let us recall once again that the Novosibirsk Metro Bridge is a seven-span metro bridge across the Ob River, connecting the Studencheskaya and River Station stations of the Leninskaya Line of the Novosibirsk Metro. The total length is 2.145 km (of which the river part is 896 meters). The bridge is the longest metro bridge in the world. Train traffic was opened along with the stations of the first launch site on January 7, 1986 (or December 25, 1985).

The bridge with a total weight of 6200 tons is a structure in the form of a box-shaped rifled closed double-track 7-span structure.

The bridge crossing is a gray reinforced concrete box.

Previously open windows on the bridge have been sealed with metal shutters since the mid-1990s, only because in the daytime the eyes of the drivers were very tired from their flickering.

The elements of the superstructure are welded from low-alloy steel with a mounting connection on high-strength bolts with a diameter of 24 mm.

The bridge supports are made of reinforced concrete and have a V-shape.

In the conditions of the Siberian climate, the linear expansion of the structure lengthens the metal structure up to 700 mm.
In this case, such a linear elongation is compensated by equalizing devices.

For maintenance of the metro bridge, two trolleys with a rotary axle for the passage of V-shaped supports are provided.

Carts move along these rails.

In winter, the metro bridge is shortened, and in summer it is stretched by 50 cm, for which special rollers are provided on the supports, along which the entire box-shaped structure “rolls”. This is due to the Siberian climate and a sharp temperature drop.

Left-bank overpass of the metro bridge.
It looks like a glazed green gallery box with window openings 2 m by 2 m and has a length of more than 1 km.
The overpass consists of 3 sections:

1) Descent from the level of the high channel part (for the passage of ships) of the bridge.

2) Straight section running parallel to the Communal Bridge dam.
It was planned to locate the Sportivnaya metro station on it.

3) The turn, after which the trains go into the thickness of the coast of the Gorsky cliff, and then under the Karl Marx Avenue.

The bridge was put into operation in 1985 and, according to the norms, must be repainted every 7 years, otherwise corrosion processes begin.
On August 3, 2011, the third scheduled continuous painting began. Prior to this, the metro bridge was painted in 1992 and 1999.

The process of painting the metro bridge.

Before the start of painting, a long preparatory stage was ahead - first, the surface of the metro bridge was freed from the old paint, and then primed. This took about 1.5 months. Before painting, a primer was applied to the surface of the metro bridge. A certain design paint XC-119 of light gray color is used on the metro bridge. This special paint is designed to protect railway cars, tanks, bridges and other metal structures operated in atmospheric conditions of various climatic regions. The paint is resistant to temperature changes from -50C to +60C. Painting is done by pneumatic airless spraying.

In warm and hot weather, all vent windows are opened on the flyovers to ventilate the bridge.

Inside the subway bridge.

The operation of the bridge is a complex task. Every night, everyone on duty is given a task: who goes down to the supports, who observes the behavior of cracks, who tightens the bolts. In a certain area, every fourth bolt must be checked. A one and a half meter key for these purposes weighs fifteen kilograms. Emergency telephones are located in metal boxes throughout the bridge. Previously open windows on the bridge were sealed with metal blinds only because in the daytime the eyes of the drivers were very tired from their flickering.

Under the bridge there are huge metal rollers, on which the entire structure balances over the Ob to the right and left. This is due to its increased sensitivity to high and low temperatures. From the cold, the bridge becomes 50 cm shorter, and in the heat, respectively, vice versa. Steel warps even due to the fact that during the day the sunny side of the bridge heats up more than the one in the shade.

Everyone remembers that they recently painted the metro bridge in Novosibirsk? So, it was a great excuse to walk along the metro bridge and look inside it. Let's talk about the Novosibirsk metro?

1. Ferry metal structure at the section River Station - Studencheskaya

Speaking of civil defense, in the section from the portals of the tunnels of the left bank to the Studencheskaya station, two distillation MKs per tunnel are installed in parallel, the space between which should serve as a gateway in front of a protected shelter. Hermetic doors are hefty-hefty! Hermetic doors of my dreams. They must save from all misfortunes from the surface, from flooding to the most powerful blast wave of an atomic strike.

2. Continuing the theme of GO. The empty block of the VOMD chamber, in which the FVU (Filtroventilation Units) should have been located

Ideally, in the event of a direct threat of a missile strike, sirens will sound throughout the city, and people will have 15 minutes to take cover in the subway. After 15 minutes, all hermetic seals - station and distillation MK will be closed. The subway, namely the stations and tunnels, will turn into a large bomb shelter. All the main hermetic seals in the ventilation shafts will close, leaving only the HVU open, which will provide shelter with clean air.

But this is ideal, but in reality, none of this will happen in the Novosibirsk metro. Because all the FVUs are empty, all the outlet chambers are not airtight, the tabs for cables in the distillation MKs are not minted, and these MKs themselves have never been tested, all the hermetic seals in the transitions will never close, because they will not be allowed to do this by kiosks. And the funny thing is, all the toilets in the hauls (yes, there are toilets for ordinary people in the tunnels) are welded.

3. We remove a passing train from the airtight door

But why is everything in such a state, you ask? Yes, all because there were problems with financing during the construction of the launch complex. And most of the tunnel structures were excluded back in 1985, with the hope of building it later. Therefore, three hefty by Novosibirsk standards special facilities were started, but not completed, "Chambers" No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, one of which was supposed to be TESORPGA ( thermal power plant providing backup power generator-accumulator), which was supposed to provide water and electricity to the metro in case of emergency. Why the other two chambers were built I can only guess, but one of them was supposed to be a large shelter, which at the moment is a large columned hall.

4. One of the unfinished "cameras" for clarity. Located behind the Youth Theater. The same pillared hall.

Agree, it is logical that if there are K-4, 5, 6, then there should be K-1, 2 and 3? But what is there, in what condition they are, for what they were built, I do not know. But it seems to me that they are just as empty.

But there is no need to sound the alarm, the times of the Cold War are over, there is no threat of a bomb attack at the moment, and all defense facilities are unlikely to be useful to us in the near future. If we take Kazan as an example, then the metro there is the newest, and it was built without taking into account civil defense structures.

5. We don’t burn right now, we don’t burn! What do you think is behind these sheets of iron?

But something we started talking about civil defense, remember that our goal is the metro bridge. After all, it is the longest on the planet. The total length is 2145 m (of which the river part is 896 m)! By the way, initially there were different ideas on how to run the metro from the right to the left bank, one of them was to dig tunnels under the riverbed, which would be more correct from the point of view of civil defense, but due to the difficulty of driving in the mountains (correct if I wrong) breeds, the option was rejected. Another of the rejected options is linking the metro route to the existing supports of the Communal Bridge

7. Metro bridge from the inside

8. We climbed from the side of the Rechnoy Vokzal station and stomped along the metro bridge to the very end

That's all. Our subway is small but good.

The Novosibirsk metro bridge is nothing more than a covered bridge connecting the banks of the Ob River. There are many such structures in the world, but the Novosibirsk metro bridge is the longest among them!

Thinking about building bridge due to the difficult traffic situation between the left and right banks of the Ob. The structure of the metro bridge over the water is a metal seven-span beam with a length of 896 meters, and of an individual design (box type). Channel supports made of monolithic reinforced concrete look like the letter "V". Construction lasted for five years.

The metro bridge is currently divided into three parts, one of which is reserved for a gallery that connects the bridge crossing and the elevated part of the Rechnoy Vokzal station, the other part is the bridge crossing, the third is a gray reinforced concrete box and a green gallery box. A lot of controversy accompanied the bridge project. Competent persons insisted that it was categorically impossible to build a bridge at such a close distance from the automobile one, they suggested laying it under the river bottom. This option was also supported by representatives of the Civil Defense, because in case of war the tunnel was to be used as a bomb shelter. Another disadvantage of the open bridge was their ability to cool down in winter.

The construction project was undertaken by Lengiprotransmost specialists with extensive experience in building such bridges. Gosstroy of the USSR approved the final version of a free-standing metro bridge in 1978. The chief engineer was K. Vinogradov, and the architect was S. Tsyganov. It was they who proposed to build a metro bridge 80 meters from the already existing Oktyabrsky bridge crossing.

The length of the bridge reaches 2145 meters, with 896 meters falling on the channel part. Excluding the support, the weight of the building is 6.2 tons. The walls of the flyovers along the entire length of the bridge have window openings. The opening of the Novosibirsk metro bridge dates back to 1985.

As for the sliding of the bridge, it was carried out in stages from one coast to another, using the most powerful hydraulic jacks. Currently, there is no analogue of this metro construction method. The bridge gallery was made at the steel structure factory. The right-bank overpass was partially built into the ground lobby of the Rechnoy Vokzal station.

In order to maintain the bridge trolleys with a rotary axis are provided for the passage of V-shaped supports. According to the norms, the metro bridge must be painted every seven years, the last time painting was carried out in 2011. The process itself is not very simple, since first the surface is freed from old paint, then it is primed.

There is one interesting fact, in winter, the bridge is somewhat reduced, in the summer, on the contrary, it stretches by 50 cm. The rollers that are installed on the supports help it move.