New Railway Bridge ( sr, Нови железнички мост, Novi železnički most) is a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...

over the

Sava The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...

river in Belgrade, the capital of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

. Opened in 1979, it was the second railway bridge over the Sava in Belgrade after the

Old Railway Bridge Old Railroad Bridge ( sr, Стари железнички мост, Stari železnički most) is a bridge over the Sava river in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It was the first railway bridge in Belgrade and today is one of two across the Sava, ...

in 1884, and fifth in the row of six bridges which span the river in the urban section of the city. It was the first railway bridge in Europe to use cable-stayed girder system, as this type of bridges was used only for the motorways until that point.

History

By the mid-20th century it became clear that the Old Railway Bridge can't service all the traffic. By 1971 the project of the new

Belgrade railway junction The Belgrade railway junction ( sr, Београдски железнички чвор, ) is a large-scale reconstruction of the rail network in Belgrade, Serbia. It was launched 1971 with works officially starting 1974 with the construction of th ...

was green-lighted. It envisioned a new bridge, which would make a direct link between the New Belgrade railway station and the projected central station,

Prokop Prokop may mean either of two Hussite generals, both of whom died in the 1434 battle of Lipan: * Prokop the Great * Prokop the Lesser Other people who bore the name Prokop: * Procopius, 6c historian * Saint Prokop, or Procopius of Sázava (died 1 ...

. Though construction of the Makiš marshalling yard was given a go first, it was the bridge which was finished before the yard as it was more important object for the entire projected junction. City hall voted a decision to build it some away from the Old Railway Bridge. The construction of the bridge began in 1975. It was designed by Nikola Hajdin, engineer and future president of the

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...

, and Ljubomir Jeftović. It was decided to use the cable-stayed girder system, which up to that point was used only for the motorway bridges, not a railway ones. The construction was slowed down due to the property issues in the neighborhood of

Senjak Senjak ( sr-cyrl, Сењак, ) is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. Located in Savski Venac, one of the three municipalities that constitute the very center of the city, it is an affluent neighborhood containing emba ...

, where the bridge was to touch the ground on the right bank of the Sava. The emptying and removal of the buildings around the Senjak Marketplace dragged on longer than planned. The placement of the bridge construction was finished in August 1978, followed by painting and anti-corrosion protection. The bridge, constructed by the

Mostogradnja Mostogradnja (''Građevinsko preduzeće Mostogradnja a.d. Beograd'') is a Serbian bridge building company, with headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia. Its projects have included bridges and interchanges, as well as industrial and military structures i ...

company, was completed and opened for traffic in 1979.

Traffic

Though imagined as one of the central pieces of the new railway junction already by the end of the 1970s, it usefulness was connected with the construction of other sections of the project. However, as of 2018, the project is still largely unfinished. The railway tracks were laid over the bridge in the early 1980s and the rail was electrified. The statics testing was conducted in November 1983. Two trains, with 15 cars loaded with

crushed stone Crushed stone or angular rock is a form of construction aggregate, typically produced by mining a suitable rock deposit and breaking the removed rock down to the desired size using crushers. It is distinct from naturally occurring gravel, which i ...

, were used. Due to the collapsing economy and the wars which followed, the central Prokop station wasn't finished and the traffic over the bridge was light as it couldn't fully serve its purpose. So, the bridge was described as being "largely neglected, both in terms of traffic, and the minds of citizens". In 2014 the works on the Prokop were intensified and in 2016, still unfinished station, became operational. This was followed by the partial relocation of traffic from the Belgrade Main railway station. Majority of the railway traffic was rerouted to the new bridge in the late 2017 while the Main station was completely closed in July 2018, when the Old Railway Bridge effectively lost its traffic importance, leaving only the new bridge to function over the Sava. As part of the reconstruction project of the Belgrade-Budapest trunk line, the section from Prokop (Centar) to Zemun is undergoing track modernization, which means that at the moment, one of the tracks on the bridge is closed for repairs, employing

single-line working On a railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicle ...

Characteristics

The bridge is long.

Gallery

Image:New_Railway_Bridge,_Belgrade,_Serbia.jpg, New Railway bridge during New Year eve night New Railway Bridge in Belgrade at dusk.JPG, New Railway Bridge in Belgrade at dusk.

References

External links