The combination of economic efficiency and aesthetics is award-worthy: At the 40th steel construction day, SSF Ingenieure AG was granted the Engineering award of the German steel construction industry in the category bridge engineering for the trough bridge built by segment method. The innovative bridge convinced the jury with its fast modular assembly method, and at the same time with its excellent design.
“With the system of a trough bridge, in contrast to an arch bridge or similar, a rather modest solution was consciously chosen within the natural surroundings”, the jury stated in its laudatory speech. “The otherwise likely massive looking front view of the hollow boxes is interestingly divided and corresponds to a structurally effective shape by skilfully warping the inclined upper chord from a smaller width at the abutment to a larger width at the span’s centre.” At the occasion of the 40th steel construction day in Berlin on 29 and 30 October, the award was formally given to SSF board member Anton Braun.
“We are very happy to receive this award”, said Christian Schmitt, chairman of the SSF Ingenieure AG board, “Modular construction is the key to an efficient development in bridge engineering and will play an even more important role in the future. The bridge over Salzach river demonstrates impressively that efficient, fast construction is perfectly compatible with an aesthetic overall design.”
Bridge over Salzach River near Kaprun
The bridge over the Salzach, part of the link road between Kaprun and Zell am See, is a steel trough bridge with a concrete deck slab built by composite method. The bridge holds a 3.25-m wide carriageway as well as a pedestrian and cycle lane. It crosses 50 m as single-span girder. The substructures are placed on footings on a gravel buffer because of lacustrine clay layers. The 2.50-m high trough walls consist of hollow steel boxes with inclined upper chords and accommodate the supply lines. Following the suggestion of the architect Thomas Rampp (Land Hugger Rampp Architekten), the upper chords are divided into two inclined areas to avoid trespassing by pedestrians. Moreover, in this way, the girders’ view is clearly divided, seems dynamic and creates space for the supply lines. The deck slab consists of 20-cm thick prefabricated slabs and a 20-cm thick cast-in situ slab. The prefabricated elements are π-slabs placed between the trough frames. Tensile stresses in the π-slabs are absorbed by external reinforcement made of galvanised steel T-profiles. Vertical loads are distributed via elastomeric bearings. The superstructure is monolithically connected to the transition slabs which counterbalance horizontal movements and settlements in the embankment area.
The Engineering Award of the German Steel Construction Industry
The Engineering Award of the German Steel Construction Industry has been granted to outstanding steel structures in the field of bridge engineering and architecture since 2013. The assessment is made by an independent jury which evaluates the submitted structures in view of their design effort to use steel as a construction material innovatively and in a future-oriented way.
