2200-ton railway bridge in Budapest, Hungary completes integral installation

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 2, Hungarian railway infrastructure contractor V-Híd, with assistance from Dutch heavy transport company Mammoet, completed the integral installation of the southern bridge section of the Közvágóhíd railway bridge in Budapest. The bridge section weighs approximately 2200 tons, is 108 meters long and 20 meters wide, and is the first of two bridge sections of the new Közvágóhíd railway bridge. The entire installation operation was completed within a single weekend.

The new bridge spans Soroksári út in Budapest, near Budapest Park. The project comprises two bridge sections, south and north, both with dimensions of approximately 108 meters in length and 20 meters in width. The southern bridge section was installed first, and the northern bridge section is planned to be completed in a similar manner approximately one year later.

V-Híd contacted Mammoet in March 2025 to develop a transport and installation plan for the bridge section. Instead of adopting a traditional sliding solution, the construction team assembled the bridge section at the prefabrication site and then transported the entire structure to the installation position using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT). The original sliding solution would have required temporary support towers within the Soroksári út road area and the construction of temporary pile foundations approximately 20 meters deep.

The actual installation used a combination of SPMT and temporary support masts. The support structures were mounted on the modular transporters, which then drove beneath the bridge section to support and transport the pre-assembled bridge section as a whole to its final position. This solution eliminated the need for temporary deep pile construction and large temporary support foundations within the road area.

The Közvágóhíd railway bridge is part of the Ferencváros–Kelenföld railway section capacity expansion project. According to Hungarian government documents, this section is currently a double-track electrified railway, with a renovation scope of approximately 3.69 kilometers, of which approximately 1.95 kilometers will be expanded to three tracks and approximately 1.73 kilometers to four tracks, adding a total track length of approximately 6.92 kilometers. The project also includes the new Közvágóhíd and Nádorkert stations, as well as the renovation of multiple railway bridges at Soroksári út, Gubacsi út, Budafoki út, and other locations.

After the capacity expansion, the design allowable speed for this section will increase to 80–100 km/h, and the axle load will increase to 225 kN. The project also plans to build over 5 kilometers of reinforced concrete retaining walls and approximately 35,000 square meters of noise barriers.