ArcelorMittal contributed to one of the largest Polish railway projects of the last decade: the reconstruction of the E-30 railway corridor in Krakow and the modernization of several stations, connecting two districts of Krakow.

Started in 2017, work on the E-30 railway corridor includes the total reconstruction of a railway bridge over Poland's largest river, the Vistula, in downtown Krakow.

 

     Initially, a simple partial renovation was planned with the addition of two additional bridges on either side of the existing deck, but after technical and financial analyses, it was decided to make a complete set of three new bridges. In 2020, the City of Krakow and the investor, PKP PLK S.A., agreed to extend the scope of works by installing a cycle and pedestrian path on the outer deck, leading to a change in the design and increasing the width of the bridge.

Histar® for extraordinary constructions

ArcelorMittal and its beam finishing center (BFC-LPL) based in Niederkorn then supplied 1,300 tonnes of Histar460® and were commissioned to carry out the cutting, bending and chamfering of the beams for the preparation of the welds on the bridge site. With a total length of 229 meters, its largest reinforced concrete slab covers 1,200 m3, and its pouring took twenty hours continuously. Unique feature of the solution: the use of HD 400 sections (variable sizes) Histar460® for the arch elements on which the entire bridge is suspended. The use of heavy-duty HD profiles in this unique project significantly reduced the volume of material required and accelerated the on-site assembly process.

 

Today it is the longest and thinnest railway bridge ever built in Europe. After the first side of the bridge was put into service in May 2020, the second double-track bridge (the most central) opened in June 2022. It was in May 2023 that the third bridge was opened for rail traffic.