Bridge Inspection Vehicles

The construction of a large number of high railway bridges on the new lines Hannover-Würzburg and Mannheim-Stuttgart confronts the railways with completely new tasks in the fields of inspection and maintenance. Very high (up to 90 m) and long (maximum of 1,600 m) viaducts raise the problem of an economic approach on the one hand, and on the other question of access to the individual structural members, above all at great heights. A satisfying solution could be found for the inspection of all areas of the structure of high viaducts. Despite the different tasks with regard to approach and access to the structure, this was achieved with a comparatively low number of equipment variants. This was only possible, because the concept of General Design provided essentially the same cross-sectional and equipment elements for all bridges.