Červená Railway Bridge

Railway bridge in rail line between Tábor and Písek

Červená Railway Bridge

Native name
Czech: Červenský železniční most

View from the south

Type| railway bridge
Location| rail line between Tábor and Písek
Coordinates| 49°22′53″N 14°15′10″E﻿ / ﻿49.38139°N 14.25278°E﻿ / 49.38139; 14.25278
Area| Oslov and Jetětice, Czech Republic
Height| 65 metres (213 ft) above the river
Built| 1886
Architect| Meltzer and Hüsse

Invalid designation

Designated| 2021

The  Červená Railway Bridge  (Czech: Červenský železniční most) is a railway bridge in the Czech Republic, located on the rail line between Tábor and Písek, over the Orlík Reservoir. It was declared a cultural monument of the Czech Republic in 2021.

## History

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The bridge was built in 1886–1889 from steel from the First Czech-Moravian Machine Factory, the largest producer of steel structures in Bohemia at the time. Designed by the engineers Meltzer and Hüsse, it opened on 20 November 1889. It was built without scaffolding, using the balanced cantilever method, first railway bridge in the area built using this method. During its construction, it became the second highest bridge in all of Austria-Hungary.[1]

The bridge was the subject of a CIA study in 1950, noting that it was of local strategic importance only. According to the report, the bridge is 500 m long (noting that this length seems exaggerated), with a height of 65–70 m above the river.[2]

Since 2021, it has been a cultural monument of the Czech Republic, with the designation noting: "The railway steel lattice bridge, built at the end of the 1880s near the settlement of Červená, is a unique technical structure of extraordinary importance not only in terms of its dimensions, but also in its static arrangement and method of flying assembly. At the end of the 19th century, it was the very first railway bridge in our country, built without scaffolding by fly assembly, which was a revolutionary innovation in construction. (...)" [1]

## Technical details

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Cross-section of the rail deck

The structure is a three-span, truss girder bridge with an immediate bridge deck without a ballast platform, built in 1886 using the balanced cantilever method. [3]

The bridge is 254.2 metres (834 ft) long with three main spans of 84.4 metres (277 ft), the load-bearing structure is formed by two truss girders with overall height of 9.9 metres (32 ft) and system of cross and longitudinal beams supporting the intermediate bridge deck. A rail expansion device is installed on both ends.[4]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Železniční most". pamatkovykatalog.cz (in Czech). National Heritage Institute. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
2. ^ Railroad Bridge over the Moldavia River near Cervena (PDF) (Report). CIA. 22 June 1950. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
3. ^ Žitný, J.; Ryjáček, P.; Marková, J.; Sýkora, M. (2018). "Hidden safety in equilibrium verification of a steel bridge based on wind tunnel testing". Life Cycle Analysis and Assessment in Civil Engineering:…. ISBN 9781351857574. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
4. ^ Žitný, Jan; Ryjáček, Pavel (2017). "Reserves in load capacity assessment of existing bridges". IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 236 (12061): 012061. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/236/1/012061. "Uses text under the CC-by license"