Abstract
IT is stated in Electric Welding of February, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Quasi-Arc Co., Ltd., of London, that the London Passenger Transport Board has placed the contract for the building of a new bridge to carry the Hammersmith and City Railway over Ladbroke Grove, just outside Ladbroke Grove Station. The new bridge is to be of all-welded construction, and will be the first of its type and size in Great Britain. The present bridge has been in service for seventy years. The advantages of having a bridge without bolts and rivets are: the reduction of weight by one fifth, a substantial reduction of cost and much less noise during construction. The new bridge will be 60 ft. long ; it will be built on three girders instead of two, and there will be a ballasted track instead of a timber track. These improvements will give much quieter running and also more steadiness and strength. It will be erected on trestles beside the present bridge, and early one Sunday morning the old structure will be rolled away and the new one rolled into place. Dr. Schaper, chief engineer of the German State Railways, stated in a paper last Hay read before a joint meeting of the Institution of pivil Engineers and the Institution of Structural Engineers that already at that time there were 150 all-welded railway bridges in service on the Reichsbahn up to spans of 177·2 ft. At least as many all-welded bridges have been constructed in connexion with the new German arterial motor roads with spans nearly 100 ft. long. In Belgium nearly fifty welded bridges of the Vierendeel type up to spans of 295 ft. have been constructed over the Albert Canal. It seems certain that, in the future, welding will play an increasingly large part in the technique of construction.
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A Bridge Without Bolts or Rivets. Nature 141, 866 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141866a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141866a0