Highway-Railway Framed Antiseismic Bridge

The combined bridge over the gorge of the Razadan River in Armenia includes a steel strut-framed truss structure and curved reinforced concrete approach spans on flexible piers. The gorge at the location of the bridge crossing is over 250 meters wide, 110 meters deep; it has vertically highly cracked walls in the upper portion and steep slopes in the lower one. The erection of piers on the slopes of the gorge being effectively prevented by lack of road access and terrain the best solution lay in a double-deck strut-framed superstructure with the upper deck carrying the motorway 11.5 m wide with sidewalks each 1.5 m wide, and the lower deck carrying one railway track.