Technical Assessment of 120-Year-Old Railway Riveted Truss Bridge

A 120-year-old railway truss bridge over the Bóbr River, Poland, is investigated in this paper from the mechanical and chemical properties of the materials by testing of old steel samples in a lab – through geodetic measurements, bathymetric measurements of the riverbed and dynamic measurements of bridge spans under service load – to the analysis of structural behaviour by finite-element modelling. The mechanical and chemical properties of the structural old steel are investigated by testing steel elements extracted from the old bridge. Structural analysis shows that the bridge is eligible for renovation or replacement for a new one due to unfulfilled today’s load requirements in terms of bearing capacity. The paper begins with a survey of chosen literature carried out on the investigation of the old steel railway bridge's subject matter. This paper can provide scientists, engineers, and designers with an experimental and structural basis in the field of old steel riveted railway truss bridges.