Bridge across Volga on the M-11 Neva passed acceptance tests

The largest road structure of the Northern Tver Bypass down the M-11 Neva, a bridge across the Volga River, has successfully passed the inspection for compliance with safety requirements and the actual load-bearing capacity of its structures. This is the final stage of the quality assurance of the construction and installation works prior to the final acceptance committee. The tests confirmed the reliability of the bridge's load-bearing structures and their readiness for permanent use.

To carry out the inspection, experts designed a comprehensive program consisting of two stages: testing the structure's channel part and testing the spans of the bridge's floodplain part. Each stage, in turn, comprises a static and a dynamic part.

The static part of the tests consisted in that the pre-calculated load — 12 dump trucks weighing 25 tons each — were placed in different positions on the bridge roadway and the obtained parameters of the structure's stress-strain state were compared with the estimated values.

As part of the dynamic tests, a loaded dump truck ran across the bridge at varying speeds and in different modes — smoothly, with braking, jumping over the threshold, thus simulating diverse types and directions of load.

Works at the site started in the summer 2022. The length of the bridge across the Volga is 738 meters, and its width is just over 24 meters. The height of the structure's span over the water reaches 17 meters that will enable sizable cruise ships to pass under the bridge during the navigation season.