Łazienkowski Bridge Fire in Warsaw – Structural Damage and Restoration Method

On the 14th of February, 2015, a huge fire broke out on Łazienkowski Bridge; a five span bridge, 423 m long and 28 m wide, built in the years 1972-74. It was a fully steel structure with four plate girders and orthotropic deck. The fire started under the first span during the replacement of wooden service decks. The next day, the Department of Bridges of the Warsaw University of Technology was designated to conduct an expertise material investigation, geometrical verification, and FEM model analysis. The subject of this paper concentrates on geometrical issues. The main difficulty of this task was the lack of full reference data regarding the bridge's original structure. The old design was incomplete and there was no actual surveying results for the undamaged structure. As a conclusion, some remarks focused on surveying measurements and on the final decision regarding this bridge are given. It was eventually exchanged into a brand new one and put into public use on the 28th of October, 2015.