Structural analysis of a historical masonry arch railway bridge in Gata de Gorgos, using a generic finite element analysis software

Abstract

The rehabilitation and deck widening of the masonry viaduct over the river Gorgos, built on 1913, is included in the renewal of the historical Alicante railway net. The primary aim of the rehabilitation work was to repair the bridge’s deficiencies caused by the deterioration of the structure, upgrade its capacity to resist the loads included in modern codes and fulfil the railway safety requirements defined by the owner. A bidimensional FE model was carried out in order to assess the structural behaviour of the viaduct, confirming that no global failure occur under the current design loads.