Ufa Rail Bridge

Ufa Rail Bridge
Coordinates	54°43′06″N 55°54′28″E / 54.7182°N 55.9079°E / 54.7182; 55.9079Coordinates: 54°43′06″N 55°54′28″E / 54.7182°N 55.9079°E / 54.7182; 55.9079
Carries	Originally single track it was later widened to double track.
Crosses	Belaya river
Locale	Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia
Characteristics
Material	Steel, reinforced concrete, stone
Total length	655.5 m (2,151 ft)
No. of spans	6х109.25 m (358.4 ft)
History
Designer	Nikolai Belelyubsky
Construction start	1886
Construction end	1888
Opened	September 8, 1888
Location

Ufa rail bridge across the Belaya River carries double tracked rail lines over the river Belaya. It is located in the city of Ufa, the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.^[1]

Construction[]

Construction of the bridge began in 1886 and was completed in 1888. The bridge provided a crossing for trains over the river Belaya in the direction of Ufa, and made it possible to extend the Trans-Siberian line up to Chelyabinsk (1892).^[2][3]

The design was made by Prof. Nikolai Beleloubski, in compliance with technical guidelines of 1884. Steelwork elements were manufactured at the famous Votkinsk ironworks (now the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant) in Udmurtia, where starting from 1871 open hearth furnaces began to be widely used that made it possible to produce rails for the country's railroad network.

The bridge consisted of 6 spans, each of 109-meter (358 feet) bowstring arch through trusses with double lattice girders. This design involved careful and exact alignment of truss members and chords manufactured of cast iron that was advanced for its time. Beleloubski also proposed an innovative constructive solution: the transverse floor-beams of trusses were connected by hinges to bottom chords. Such a type of structural support was considered to be ground-breaking in the days of Beleloubski, because it allowed to reduce secondary stresses in trusses. This design received the gold medal at the Edinburg Exposition 1890 and later came to be known as "the Russian support method".^[4]

The official opening of the bridge to the public, September 8, 1888.

On 8 September 1888, the bridge was solemnly opened for traffic by Minister of Railway Transport, admiral Konstantin Posyet. A pedestrian path was opened on the bridge: for this purpose they made wooden sidewalks (subsequently the movement of pedestrians was forbidden).

The piers of the bridge were reinforced by starlings (cutwaters) pointing upstream to break up pieces of ice floating downstream during the annual spring thaw.

A photograph of the bridge in the early 20th century

In June 1919, the battles of the Russian Civil War took place directly around Ufa. In order to maintain control over the town at all costs, the retreating troops of Admiral Kolchak blew up the sixth (right-bank) span of the bridge. One end of the truss fell into the river and strongly deformed. But this didn't help the Whites to achieve their goal, because the famous 25th Rifle Division of Chapaev captured the town on 9 June 1919.

Ufa rail bridge1919

After the retreat of Kolchak, the assault troops of the Red Army moved further, while their rear units remained on the right bank near Ufa. Meanwhile, the crossing was in urgent need of rehabilitation. Since there was no heavy construction equipment available, manual labor was only hope. It was decided to use scaffolding for putting the fallen truss back into place. Inch by inch, step by step, as if they brought heavy stones to the top of the Egyptian pyramids, but nobody seemed to care about the times of Antiquity.

The restoration involved approximately 2,500 construction workers and railway engineers. Day by day, week after week, and the fallen truss didn't towered so hoplessely above the river the way it used to. The bridge was successfully restored the same year through temporary installation of the damaged truss, followed by a complete overhaul, when the old one was fully replaced with a new span structure designed by Prof. Lavr Proskouriakov in compliance with technical guidelines of 1907. Proskouriakov designed the largest rail bridges in Russia over the Yenisey and Amur rivers.

Thanks to careful preparation, the construction workers replaced the damaged span with minimal traffic disruption - in just 11 hours. It took 7 hours for pushing the old span off the piers by using jack-ups, and 3 hours 45 minutes for putting the new one in place. On October 10, 1919, Vladimir Lenin sent a congratulatory telegram to the bridge-building crew to express his appreciation for their hardwork.^[5]

Renovation[]

There is an old data sheet of the bridge in the archives of the Ufa City Maintenance of Way, which contains the following entry made in 1928:

"...Trains with double headed E class steam locomotives and American gondola cars are not permitted to cross the bridge, during the passage of single headed E class steam locomotives, the maximum speed shall not exceed 8 km per hour (5 miles per hour)".^[5]

In the 20th century, the bridge was strengthened and modified several times.

Between 1937 and 1939, the span structures were strengthened with oversize removal and addition of reinforcing metal up to 4 per cent of the weight of the span structures.

Between 1949 and 1951, the bridge was renovated by the work train 417. On the cutwater side of the piers, pylons for a second track were erected, which were surmounted by unified span structures (designed by Proektstalkonstruktsia in 1944 for class N-7 loads).

The replacement of outdated 'tsarist' span structures with advanced ones for class S-14 loads was done by "Transstroimost" (open joint-stock company) during the period 1991-2001.

Thus, by 2001, all the bridge's spans have been equipped with contemporary steelwork elements, so there is no need to be concerned about the strength of the structure and safety of the crossing.

Bridge across the Ufa River[]

Ufa rail bridge across the Ufa River carries double tracked rail lines over the Ufa River. It is also located in the city of Ufa, near the station of Urakovo (Shaksha).

A photograph of the rail bridge across the Ufa river in the early 20th century

Its design and history were almost the same as the bridge over the Belaya River. It was built and "cured" almost the same 2 years later. It was also designed by Prof. Nikolai Beleloubski in compliance with the technical rules of 1884, but had only three spans, each 109 metres (358,432 ft) long.

During the Civil War in 1919, the third left-bank span of the bridge was blown up by the Kolchak troops, and collapsed. The explosion was carried out by artillery firing on cars with explosives previously established in the span.

In 1920, the destroyed structure was replaced with a new one designed by Prof. Proskouriakov in compliance with the technical rules of 1907.

Between 1939 and 1940, the span structures were strengthened with oversize removal and addition of reinforcing metal up to 4 per cent of the weight of the span structures.

Between 1951 and 1952, renovation work on the bridge was carried out by the work train №414. On the cutwater side of the piers, pylons for a second track were erected; these were surmounted by unified span structures (designed by Ghiprotrans in 1931 for class N-7 loads).

The replacement of outdated 'tsarist' span structures with advanced ones for class S-14 loads was done by "USK MOST" (open joint-stock company) during the period 2001-2002.

View of the rail bridge in Ufa and the mouth of the Dyoma River

Interesting facts[]

• When the bridge was completed in 1888, an artificial channel was dug out to straighten the course of the Dyoma River. It begins approximately 100 metres (329 ft) downstream of the present-day highway bridge near the cafe 'Goldfish', and runs towards the Belaya directly. The river channel was straightened in order to avoid duplication of bridge crossing over the Dyoma River. In fact, the Dyoma formerly emptied itself into the Belaya a few kilometres downstream, into its present oxbow lake, which had been the main channel until 1854. The present-day course of the Belaya River, which now girdles about Nizhegorodka (the Lower city) was then a wide duct, exceedingly low, in fact fordable in many places. The area that surrounds now Kozorez village was a big island then.
• The first color pictures of the rail bridge across the Belaya were taken by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in 1910. Photography was carried out by the method of registering on a single glass plate three separate black and white images taken through the blue, green and red filters.^[6][7]
• Slightly further upstream of the bridge lies a small island that changes annually its outlines, becoming a peninsula in the summer. The emergence of the island is connected to the fact that two barges carrying bread sank in this place at the beginning of the 20th century, which formed the basis for further sedimentation.

See also[]

• Nikolai Beleloubski
• Lavr Proskuryakov
• Trans-Siberian Railway

References[]

Notes[]

Sources[]

• Уфа, губернский город // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона: В 86 томах (82 т. и 4 доп.). — СПб., 1890-1907. (in Russian)
• История Уфы: краткий очерк / Ганеев Р.Г., Болтушкин В.В., Кузеев Р.Г.. — Уфа: Башкирское книжное издательство, 1981. — 604 с. (in Russian)
• Синенко С.Г. Город над Белой рекой. Краткая история Уфы в очерках и зарисовках 1574-2000. — Уфа: Государственное республиканское издательство «Башкортостан», 2002. — 5000 экз. (in Russian)
• Нигматуллина И.В. Старая Уфа. Историко-краеведческий очерк.. — Уфа: Белая река, 2007. — 224 с. — 3000 экз. — ISBN 978-5-87691-036-3 (in Russian)

External links[]

• Ufa City Bridges (Black & White) (in Russian)
• Education in Russia for Foreigners: University cities of Russia. Ufa
• Official website of Ufa
• Ufa virtual tour
• 360 Panoramas of Ufa
• Photos of Ufa

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