Bangabandhu Bridge

The Bridge

The centrepiece of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project is the Bangabandhu Bridge, named in honour of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This page contains some technical information about the structure of the bridge. 

Pierhead Unit 
 The main bridge is 4.8 km long with 47 main spans of approximately 100 metres and 2 end spans of approximately 65 metres. Connected to the bridge are East and West Approach Viaducts each with 12 spans of 10 metre length and transition spans of 8 metres. The total width of the bridge deck is 18.5 metres. 

The crossing has been designed to carry a dual two-lane carriageway, a dual gauge (broad and metre) railway, a high voltage (230 kV) electrical interconnector, telecommunication cables and a 750 mm diameter high pressure natural gas pipeline. 

 The carriageways are 6.315 metres wide separated by a 0.57 metre width central barrier; the rail track is located along the north side of the deck. On the main bridge, electrical interconnector pylons are positioned on brackets cantilevered from the north side of the deck. Telecommunication ducts run through the box girder deck and the gas pipeline is located under the south cantilever of the box section. 

The bridge has been built by Hyundai Engineering and Construction (Korea) as a 'design and build' contract.TY Lin Assoc. of San Francisco carried out the design as a sub-contractor for Hyundai. The Approach Roads were constructed by Samwhan Corporation (Korea). 

Sub-Structure
The bridge is supported on tubular steel piles, approximately 80 metres in length, driven into the river bed. 

Sand was removed from within the piles by airlifting and replaced with mass concrete. 

Out of the 50 piers, 21 piers are supported on groups of 3  piles (each of 2.5 m diameter) and 29 piers on groups of 2 piles (each of 3.15 diameter). The driving of 121 piles started on 15 October, 1995 and was completed in July 1996. 

The pier stems are founded on concrete pilecaps, whose shells were precast and infilled with in-situ reinforced concrete. 

The reinforced concrete pier stems support pierheads which contain bearings and seismic devices. These allow movement of the deck under normal loading conditions but lock in the event of an earthquake to limit overall seismic loads through the structure and minimise damage.

  
Completed pilecaps stretch across the Jamuna

Substructure

Superstructure

The main bridge deck is a multi-span precast prestressed concrete segmental structure, constructed by the balanced cantilever method. 

Each cantilever has 12 segments (each 4 m long), joined to a pierhead unit (2 m long) at each pier and by an in-situ stitch at mid span. The deck is internally prestressed and of single box section. The depth of the box varies between 6.5 metres at the piers to 3.25 metres at mid-span. An expansion joint is provided every 7 spans by means of a hinge segment at approximately quarter span. The segments were precast and erected using a two-span erection gantry. 

 . 

  
Segment erection in process

If you have any questions or would like some more information, send us an email 

© Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority, 1998