2020

JSC "LATVIA'S STATE FORESTS" USES WOOD IN BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION

This year, JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) will restore a bridge over the River Ječupe in Kurzeme region Nīca Municipality using wood. The work will start this May and the commissioning of the bridge is scheduled for November.

“The existing three-span reinforced concrete bridge is in satisfactory condition, however, during the main inspection, ever-increasing defects were found: structures are crumbling, reinforcing is exposed and corroded. We will use wood in the construction of the new bridge, valuing wood as a durable building material,” tells Ivars Ozols, LVM Kurzeme Region Forest Infrastructure Manager.

The combined timber bridge with glued timber beams and reinforced concrete slabs will be 13 metres long and 4.8 metres wide. This will provide a single lane carriageway where traffic will be regulated by appropriate road signs. The expected load-bearing capacity of the bridge is 60 tons and the service life is 50 years.

The beams and slabs, which are the main building elements, are to be manufactured industrially and then delivered to the site. This will allow installation work to take place within a few days, in suitable weather conditions, without the need to use mould systems. The carriageway is designed with asphalt concrete with full waterproofing. The shield barriers are solely made of wood. The solutions included in the bridge rebuilding project combine the good qualities of wood and reinforced concrete.

The bridge is located on the forest road “Ugunslīnija” near Nīca in the direction of Sikšņi.

The bridge construction design was developed by SIA “Inženierbuve”, while the construction works will be performed by SIA “Rīgas tilti”, which won the public procurement tender and implemented a similar project in Jaunpils in 2019. The quality of the works will be controlled by a construction supervisor, also providing author's supervision.