Fibrolux, a European technology leader in the development and manufacture of pultruded composites, has announced that its largest civil engineering project to date, the renovation of the Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Bridge in Poland, has been completed in December 2021.
The bridge is 1km in length and Fibrolux supplied large custom fiberglass pultruded panels for the renovation of the two-way pedestrian and cycle paths, with a total length of over 16km.
The Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Bridge was originally built in Münsterwald, Germany in 1909. In 1934 the main bridge structure was dismantled and moved to Torun in north-central Poland. The bridge is now the main arterial linking the ruins of the old city of Toruń to the south of the town .
As part of the bridge upgrade plan, pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes are moved from the main bridge deck to the outside of the bridge steel structure to provide additional bridge capacity and improve safety.
Fibrolux offers an innovative pultruded composite panel solution: interlocking panels consisting of 8 large three-cavity pultruded profiles with a cross-section of 500mm x 150mm, this technology allows the bridge deck width to expand from 2m to 4.5m, creating a safe space for pedestrians and cyclists.
Since the existing bridge structure could not support the greater weight of the steel deck, lightweight fiberglass composite structures became the preferred material design for the bridge deck, providing both the capacity upgrade needed for the bridge and a way for project engineers to facilitate maintenance , cost-effective solution.
Fibrolux creates large custom molds to produce pultruded profiles using a combination of roving and sheet as reinforcement. The pultruded profiles were delivered to site and cut to length, assembled using custom stainless steel fasteners and then coated with a non-slip coating to form approximately 4m x 10m bridge panels.
Due to the light weight of the panels, they can be lifted into place using a small crane. Fibrolux will also supply a range of fiberglass pultruded profiles in standard sizes to support the stormwater drainage system of the refurbished bridge.
Stakeholders commented: "The Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Bridge project is an excellent showcase of pultruded composites in civil engineering. The new walkway, which is more than 9 football fields in size, highlights not only the lightweight and durability benefits of composites, but also the cost and on-site time advantages for large custom profile designs.”