Fabrication and erection of large steel bridges in the twentieth century: From structural analysis to optimisation of fabrication
| Author(s): |
Eberhard Pelke
Karl-Eugen Kurrer |
|---|---|
| Medium: | conference paper |
| Language(s): | English |
| Conference: | 6th International Congress on Construction History (6ICCH 2018), July 9-13, 2018, Brussels, Belgium |
| Published in: | Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories [2 vols.] |
| Page(s): | 1037-1044 |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Abstract: | At the beginning of the twentieth century, thanks to the development of a production chain based on the division of labour and comprising material delivery—design—production—shipping—erection, German “Brückenbauanstalten” become the main driver of innovation in German large-bridge construction. Power-assisted lifting equipment and the challenge of replacing ageing railway bridges make it necessary for erection to become a clearly organised discipline. With the construction of the Rhine bridge and the first motorway bridges, erection continues its evolution into a separate and distinctive process. After the Second World War, the “Economic miracle” fine-tunes fabrication shop and erection. The bridge-construction establishments, now called steel-construction companies, simplify shapes, increase unit weights, reduce subassemblies and minimise their costly connecting interfaces. The Rhine bridge at Wiesbaden-Schierstein (1962) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Brücke (1967) in Bonn represent the pinnacle of optimised construction in terms of materials, manufacturing and erection. Around 1975, construction of large steel bridges in Germany begins to regress. The art of erection is taken up by others. |
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10078273 - Published on:
11/09/2018 - Last updated on:
05/03/2019
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