Repair of an Arched Masonry Construction for a Historic Bridge Intervention

Abstract

The Levensauer Bridge near Kiel in northern Germany is replaced by a new construction according to an enlargement of Kiel Canal. The old bridge has a span of 163 m, a height of 43 m and was built from 1892 to 1894 with two steel arches between huge masonry supports. Each of the supports consist of two massive masonry piers of solid brickwork with dimensions of 19 to 28 m and a height up to 30 m. Both piers are connected with a brick vault of 17 m span and a thickness of 1.3 to 1.7 m. Due to demands of nature conservation, the southern masonry support has to be preserved as a substantial habitat for bats. During enlargement works, horizontal and vertical displacements of the canal-side masonry pier have to be considered to ensure the safety of the construction. Small scale tests to verify the admissible spreading of the vault support have been performed by the authors [2]. The paper describes the ongoing repairing works of the vault, the piers and two massive wing-walls. Scientific approaches have been used to assess the properties of the brickwork, the damaging of the structure, the adaption of strengthening techniques and to define parameters for Engineering works. As a result, recommendations for the strengthening of vaulted structures under expected displacements are suggested.