Loading Test of the Rákóczi Danube Bridge in Budapest

In frame of the tramway network development in Budapest a new tramway line has been established on the south part of Budapest, which crosses the Danube on the Rákóczi-bridge. The bridge superstructure is a continuous double-cell steel box girder having 6 spans with the largest span of 98.52 m. The bridge was originally designed to carry four traffic and two tramway lanes, however the tramway line was only built on the bridge in 2015 and opened for the traffic with an increased tramway load level than originally planned. Related to this tramway network development the required static calculations and the loading test of the Rákóczi-bridge was executed by the BME Department of Structural Engineering. A complex loading test program was developed to check the static and dynamic behaviour of the bridge structure using 20 trucks and 4 trams having the total weight of 1040 tons. The loading test program involved local and global loading conditions investigating the local and global structural behaviour of the bridge under the combined effect of the truck and tramway loads. An extended dynamic loading test program was also carried out to investigate the dynamic behaviour of the bridge under the trucks and tramways separately. The current paper focuses on the results of this complex loading test program.