Eglisau railway bridge
The Eglisau railway bridge is a single-track railway bridge that carries train traffic across the River Rhine in the municipality of Eglisau, in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Built between 1895 and 1897, the bridge includes a central riveted steel truss and masonry arch viaducts. The full structure measures 457 metres in length.
Design and construction
The Eglisau railway bridge was constructed between 1895 and 1897 by the former Swiss Northeastern Railway. The bridge has a total length of 457 metres, with a central riveted steel truss measuring 90 metres in span and 9 metres in height. At both ends of the truss are approach bridges built from limestone blocks, with piers reaching heights of up to 50 metres. In 1982–1983, the original Zores iron trackbed with ballast was replaced by a steel trough structure filled with ballast. During this same modernization, several truss joints were reinforced, and the steel components were completely recoated to improve corrosion protection.Beginning in 2010, a structural assessment used long-term monitoring to evaluate the bridge’s fatigue performance. Strain data were collected over a year from key structural elements and analyzed using Rainflow counting and the Palmgren–Miner rule. The findings, published in 2013, confirmed that the bridge met fatigue safety requirements and projected a remaining service life of at least 50 years under expected traffic loads.