Empress Bridge

A bridge on the Indus Valley State Railway over the River Sutlej. It could also be be used by military traffic, including military siege guns on their own wheels.

Designed by Alexander Meadows Rendel.

One of the largest bridges of its time. Consisted of 16 spans, each of 250ft. clear. The girders were of the 'double-N' or Murphy-Whipple type. The piers and abutments were each founded on three cylinders of brickwork 18 feet 9 inches in diameter, sunk to a depth of 100 feet below the dry weather water level.

Constructed started in 1873 and the bridge was opened in 1878. It was almost the last part of the Indus Valley Line but initially opened without rails because of the poor quality rails sent out from Britain [?].

Shortly after completion, it was used as a road bridge by heavy guns, camels, cavalry and elephants by the Kandahar force on its way to the second Afghan war.

The bridge was reconstructed between 1926 and 1929. The work included shortening, and the eight surplus spans were re-used for a bridge over the Ravi for the Amritsar-Narowal Railway.

1878 Description .

'The new railway bridge over the Sutlej carries the Indus Valley Railway which connects Mooltan and the Upper Punjab lines with the sea at Kurrachee. The crossing is near the town of Bahawalpur, 60 miles by rail from Mooltan, and about the same distance by river above the confluence of the Sutlej and Chenab. The line is a great military necessity, affording as it does a second access to Upper India, and will also it is believed have a considerable commercial value for grain traffic. The Sutlej is the most dangerous river of the Punjab series, both from the depth to which it scours, and the treacherous way in which its channels shift, the stream varying in flood from one to even five and six miles in width, and in the cold weather from one-quarter to three-quarters of a mile.

'Careful investigation determined the Government of India on a bridge with piers of 100 ft. in depth and four-fifths of a mile in length, divided into sixteen spans of 250ft. clear, which were not only the most economical for foundations of so expensive a character, but were calculated to block the river as little as possible, unless spans of a very unusual size had been adopted. Each pier is founded on three wells of 19 ft. diameter, and 103 1/2ft. deep, including the kerb below low water. Details of these important structures will shortly form the subject of a communication to the Institution of Civil Engineers. Each pier is 42 ft. long, 14 ft. wide, and about 30 ft. high from low water. The average rise of river being 10 ft., and the maximum 12 ft., there is a minimum headway in flood of 18 ft. The abutment piers and the even numbers of piers counting from either abutment, carry fixed ends of girders, and are, therefore, higher than the odd numbers, which have 14 in. less masonry to allow the depth required by the expansion roller gear. The rails are laid to the Indian (5 ft. 6 in.) broad gauge, and the bridge is floored throughout, so as to be available !or the transport of siege guns or other military stores, even if the railway itself were not available for this purpose.

'The general character of the girder is in accordance with the views of Mr. Molesworth, the consulting engineer to the Government of India, worked out by Mr. Rendel, the consulting engineer to the Secretary of State for Indian State Railways, who also superintended the construction of the bridge in England.

'The result obtained in the erection of the last span across the deep channel, in which 400 tons of iron- work were erected, the lower chords rivetted, and the whole secured by bolts beyond the possibility of losing the girder (in case of failure of the stage) in 45 working hours, is almost on a par with American practice, and goes far to modify the arguments against rivetted joints, based on the length of time required to erect and secure them.

Figs. 1 to 22 ......

'..... Each main girder is 260 ft. long, 26ft. 3 in. deep, and 3 ft. extreme width, and forms a box girder with the side webs formed of a double system of ties inclined symmetrically towards the centre and crossed by vertical struts placed 12 ft. 10 in. apart. The end pillars of the main girders are formed of vertical boxes 2ft. square, securely attached to top and bottom booms. The main girders are placed 18 ft. apart to centres, and the road way is carried by cross girders 12 ft 10 in. apart, resting on the top inside angle iron of the lower boom, and also rivetted at their ends to the vertical struts. Longitudinal box runners 12ft. 10 in. long are placed under each rail and rivetted at their ends to the cross girders, this framework serving to carry the flooring composed of buckled plates for bearing an asphalte covering, which is made flush with the top of the rails, so that the bridge may be used for the transport of war materials as previously mentioned. In order to stiffen the upper members of the bridge the main girders are connected at the top by cross girders sufficiently high to clear the traffic, and braced with 1 3/4in. wrought-iron tie-rods with screw adjustments; this arrangement has secured great lateral stiffness, as may be seen by the small side deflection caused by moving traffic in the official testing of the bridge.

'Both ends of the main girders are mounted up on cast- iron rocking pieces resting on steel knuckles, to allow of deflection in the bridge. At one end the steel knuckle is supported on a fixed cast-iron plate resting on the pier, and at the other end on a plate which rolls on eight 6 in. turned steel pier rollers in a frame. The specification stipulated that each span must be erected complete (except rivetting) in the works of the bridge builder, and that the first span was to be completely rivetted, and then tested as follows:

'The span to be first loaded with 70 tons evenly distributed, to represent the weight of the ballast and permanent way before the wedges were struck. After the bridge took its bearings, the span was to be further loaded with weights not exceeding 400 tons. The wrought-iron was specified to be of a quality which would stand the following tests: [Table of data].

'The specification provides for all butts to be planed, and for all boles not rivetted in England to be drilled. Owing to the urgency of the work it was decided to divide the contract, and the tenders of Messrs. Head, Wrightson and Co. of Stockton-on-Tees, and of Messrs. Westwood, Baillie and Co., of London, were accepted, each for eight complete spans. Messrs. Head, Wrightson, and Co. constructed for this contract a very large travelling crane, spanning 70 ft., so that two sets of girders could bo erected at the same time; this was supported upon wrought-iron girders, 30ft. high, upon strong cast-iron stanchions. The moving traveller is worked by steam, and can lift up to 20 tons. The gauntries were 300ft. long over all. With this efficient means of moving the heavy parts of the bridge, rapid progress was made, and the various spans erected and taken down again with great celerity. To further hasten the work, Messrs. Head, Wrightson, and Co. experimented upon, and finally introduced, the Siemens electric lighting apparatus with considerable success, enabling the workmen to continue their work up to late hours of the night during the winter of 1876. The plates of the Stockton girders were made by the Bowesfield Iron Company. The largest plates were the webs of the end fascias, which were in one piece, 16ft. 2 in . by 4ft. by 3/8 in., and not rivetted in the centre.'

'The sections of booms sent out were 25 ft. 10 in. long, the pillars 26 ft. 3 in., and the ties 32 ft. The complete structure was tested with a train of three engines in steam and wagons loaded to complete the maximum weight for which the bridge was designed, and showed a gross deflection in no case less than 1 1/8in. nor more than 1 1/4in. The permanent set varied from 1/16in. to 5/16in. The greatest horizontal oscillation of the lower booms at centre of span wa 1/8in., when the test train was run over at 30 miles an hour.

'There was considerable difficulty in getting the ironwork delivered fast enough at site of bridge owing to the limited capacity of the Indus flotilla. Ultimately seven spans were disembarked at Kurrachee and brought up the river, but even this amount could not have been done in one season, had not the completion of the Indus Valley railway to Sukkur reduced the river carriage by half its length. Seven spans disembarked at Calcutta were carried, in round numbers, 1500 miles by rail, and two spans from Bombay 1800 miles by rail to the yard at Adamwahan. The adoption at a considerable expense of these various routes, and the energy displayed by the contractors and the State Railway Stores Department under General Hyde, R.E., resulted in all the girders being delivered at the bridge site between September, 1877, and May, 1878, in which latter month the erection was also completed, a few weeks before the commencement of the flood season, which precludes any work being carried on in the river bed between June and October. No higher tribute can be paid to the accuracy of the workmanship in England than the simple statement that the wedges were struck from under the girders as a rule within three weeks of the materials arriving on the ground, and in the case of the last span within a week from receipt of the last train load.

'Details of arrangements for sorting and erecting will be laid before the Institution of Civil Engineers but it may be stated here that in thirteen spans the stage; were carried by sand embankments in the river bed, the three remaining spans having depths of from 10 ft. to 56ft. of water were piled, the piles in two spans vary from 60 ft. to 72 ft. in length. The staging, of which seven sets were made, had four rows of posts, the two inner rows carrying the main girders, and the outer rows the rails for the Wellington cranes, of which four of 36 ft. span were used. Each stage averaged roughly speaking 9000 cubic feet of timber, and was shifted from span to span in from eight to ten days, including all dismantling and re-erection.

'The same stagings were used on top of the pile stagings, which were completed in the form of double temporary bridges to the same level as the sand embankments in the dry spans. Owing to an unusual season in which several unexpected floods occurred, the pile stages gave great anxiety, as did also the outer sand embankments which were threatened more than once. Fortunately no mishap occurred to the ironwork and as a matter of fact, including all loss and damage, scarcely two tons of girderwork had to be made up in India, in substitution of any of the 6500 tons despatched from England. The whole work occupied a period of four working seasons, three of which were devoted to sinking the wells and the last to the erection of the ironwork. Colonel F. W. Peile was engineer-in-chief for the first season and for part of the second, and Mr. Middleton Rayne acted in a similar capacity during the remainder of the time. The executive engineer in charge was Mr. J. Colquhon Graham during the first season but he was obliged to leave from ill-health. During the second season Mr. W. J. Galway was in charge, and was then promoted; he was succeeded by Mr. J. R. Bell, who completed the work. Mr. H. Monk acted as subdivisional engineer for the well-sinking for most of the time but was obliged to leave through ill-health. Finally Mr. B. Baxter carried out the river protection works, a very important part of the undertaking.

'The bridge was opened officially on June 7, 1878, by Sir Andrew Clarke, R.E., t e Public Works Minister; Colonel Peile, Director ; Mr. Myddleton Rayne, Engineer- in-Chief, and a large number of the leading Indian authorities; at the opening ceremony due praise was awarded by Sir Andrew to Mr. J. R. Bell and his staff who erected the ironwork. Mr. Bell and his predecessors. Messrs. J. C. Graham, H. Monk, and W. J. Galway were also complimented on the still more arduous work of the foundations. ....'

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