Monitoring of the Paraná River Bridge during Launching

The Paraná River Bridge, a 2600-m-long steel structure with 26 spans of 100 m, is the largest bridge combining highway and railway systems in Brazil, and was erected by incremental launching. Four bridge segments, two 600 m long and two 700 m long, were assembled on the riverbank, then pushed into their definitive positions. Several parameters were monitored during launching, including the stresses at critical points of the steel structure, displacements at the tops of the piers and at the end of cantilever, forces required for launching, and ambient temperature. In this paper, the stresses in the structure, deduced from strains measured by gauges at several points, are compared with the theoretical values.