ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The structural design of the composite high speed railway bridge, with a 1190m continuousmultiple river spanover theHollandschDiep, was the first of this type inTheNetherlands and proved to be a real challenge. To fulfil the Design and Construct contract, severe demands related to aesthetics, tolerance requirements, ship collision forces and comfort criteria had to be satisfied in order to allow high speed trains to pass the bridge smoothly at 330 km/hour maximum speed. In the tender-phase various design solutions and erection methods were proposed in order to meet these criteria. In this presentation the alternatives that were evaluated in the design phase to obtain acceptable dynamic properties of the bridge structure will be shown and discussed, followed by final choices that have been made for structural design and erection.
