The average weight of one element is 30 tons.
The first metalwork elements of the superstructure of the future bridge across the Sura River on M-12 Highway were delivered to the construction site. Each element weighs around 30 tons. In total, about 9,700 tons of elements will be needed to connect the banks of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Chuvash Republic.
“The structures that arrive will be assembled by two welding methods – manual arc welding and automatic flux-cored welding using a welding tractor. After that, we will proceed to the most important stage of the bridge construction – the superstructure launching,” the Head of the Sura Bridge Project of SK MOST JSC (a member of BTS-MOST Group) Igor Radchenko said.
The bridge under construction across the Sura River will be 926.5 m long and 25.02 m wide, it will have two lanes in each direction. Today, more than 350 people and 80 units of equipment are already involved in its construction. The bridge is supported by 11 piers and consists of two superstructures: a metal superstructure with an orthotropic deck between the 1-7 pier axes and a steel-reinforced concrete superstructure with a monolithic slab between the 7-11 pier axes.
The bridge across the Sura River is one of the three largest artificial structures on M-12 Highway between Moscow and Kazan. It will provide residents of the Sergachsky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Sumerlinsky District of the Chuvash Republic with an all-season alternative route instead of the existing pontoon bridge on ice, which can be closed in the autumn and spring for 2-3 weeks. During this period, two neighboring districts are connected only by a 150-kilometer-long detour road.