Paradigm update in the design of long-span railway-crossing bridges

Abstract

This paper addresses the design of very long span bridges reserved for or including high-speed-train railway crossing. The paper does not introduce a shift of paradigm. Indeed, a new paradigm is not yet available. The less pretentious goal of the paper is to outline some aspects, which seem to require an update in the design process of such bridges. The reasoning takes the cue from a bridge recently built in Turkey as well as from two infrastructural links in construction in mainland China. In particular, the authors focus their attention on two specific aspects: the adopted global static scheme of the bridge and the features of the girders that directly carry each train track. The investigation ends in the identification of some main design parameters. A consequent optimization process on them could drive toward the final executive design of next generation of long span suspension bridges for railway crossing.