India's 508-km High-Speed Rail Completes Construction of 14 Large Portal Beams

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 12, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) of India announced that the 508-km Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project completed the construction of 14 large portal beams in Vadodara, Gujarat, with each structure weighing approximately 1,500 tons. The works are located in an elevated section crossing existing railway lines, and the next phase will involve the installation of composite girders with a span of approximately 40 meters.

The Vadodara section is approximately 8.3 km long, and the high-speed rail alignment must cross 5 existing railway lines, including the Delhi–Mumbai trunk line. Of the 14 portal beams, 10 are located between Vadodara High-Speed Rail Station and Vishwamitri Railway Station, and the other 4 are located between Vadodara Railway Station and Chhayapuri Railway Station. The high-speed rail alignment crosses the existing railways at a skew, and the relevant beams serve to support the superstructure of the viaduct.

Due to constraints from existing railway operations and limited on-site construction space, all 14 beams were constructed using cast-in-place methods. Each beam is approximately 37 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 4 meters high, using approximately 590 cubic meters of concrete and approximately 55 tons of reinforcement steel. The construction utilized heavy lifting equipment, hydraulic jacks, long-boom concrete pumps, and precision surveying equipment, and was coordinated with Indian Railways for blockade windows on the existing railway lines.

After completion of the 14 portal beams, the construction team will proceed with the installation of the viaduct superstructure. Among these, the section crossing the Delhi–Mumbai trunk line is planned to have composite girders with a span of approximately 40 meters installed, while the remaining relevant sections will adopt the Span-by-Span (SBS) method to continue building the high-speed rail viaduct structure.

The Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail connects Maharashtra and Gujarat, passing through Dadra and Nagar Haveli, with a total length of approximately 508 km, 12 planned stations, and a design operating speed of 320 km/h. The total project investment is estimated at approximately 1.08 trillion rupees, and the line construction includes viaducts, tunnels, stations, and river-crossing bridges. The section where Vadodara Station is located is one of the construction sections where the line passes through an area with dense existing railway lines.