Preface

By the proposal of the Hungarian National Committee of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), the Department of Steel Structures, Technical University of Budapest, with the active cooperation of similar departments of the countries along the Danube, first of all in Bratislava, Vienna and Belgrade, in 1990 began to organise the International Conference "BRIDGES ON THE DANUBE" for September 7 - 11, 1992 held in Vienna - Bratislava - Budapest.

On the occasion of the Conference - for subsequent publication - collection of material for a catalogue of the Danube bridges had been initiated, including all kinds of technical and historical data.

For this task a Committee was formed including members from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania.

The collected material can be originated from different sources.

Generally used references were:

ALBUM DES PONTS
(Description des conditions de passage des batiments sour les ponts sitnes sur le Danube),
Commision du Danube, Budapest, 1967.

INDICATEUR KILOMETRIQUE DU DANUBE
Commision du Danube, Budapest, 1992.

In Romania a detailed collection work was carried out, supervised by Prof. Radu Bancila. Their material contained data for the Bulgarian-Romanian and Yugoslavian-Romanian bridges. Very efficient contribution has been given by Dipl.-Eng. Sabin Florea, President - Executive Director, Stock Company VIACONS S. A.

In Yugoslavia Bratislav Stipanic summarized the main important data of the bridges in a table, it was the basis of the further ones. Figures were taken from the general references mentioned above or they were made on the basis of the figures of the Proceedings papers from Yugoslavia. In this third version a more completed material can be found about the Yugoslavian bridges thanking to his efforts.

In Hungary the basic materials for the catalogue were the study of UVATERV Bridge Desing Office, prepared with the collaboration of the Department of Steel Structures, Technical University, Budapest in 1985-86, titled "Tanulmány a magyarországi Duna- és Tisza-hidak fejlesztésére" and the summarising studies of Jenõ Hargitay. A great number of data was presented by László Szabó museologist (Hungarian Museum of Transport).

In Slovakia Prof. Eugen Chladny and Prof. Zoltán Agócs were the leaders in the data collection work concerning the bridges of the Slovakian Danube reach.

In Austria Prof. Günter Ramberger was responsible for this task. The fact, that in the frame of her diploma work in 1991-1992 Ms. Maximiliane Pisecker made the collection and compilation, was a very important guidance.

In Germany Prof. Herbert Kupfer and Prof. Friedrich Nather were the reponsible persons for the catalogue. Along the Danube in Germany there are bridges in a very high number, the present collection contains the German bridges up to Regensburg. Ms. Pisecker's diploma work was an important tool even for the Bavarian Danube bridges.

Collection of the data of bridges above Regensburg was leaded by Ministerialrat Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Weber with the contibution of Dipl.-Ing. Hans Grassl (TU Munich).

 

In the Catalogue data are presented in an adjusted, unified form.

The pages contain a lot of colour photos of the bridges. Data contains the general elevation and the cross section(s) of the bridge together with its name, place and distance from the Black Sea, and the further ones, if any, give the main important technical and historical data, as circumstances of construction and reconstruction, antecedents, structural details for the superstructure and the substructure, corrosion protection, navigation path, public utilities, load tests and literature. In this later topic no references are given to the papers, which are presented in the Proceedings and Final Report of the Conference BRIDGES ON THE DANUBE (1992).

During the compilation of the Catalogue we had a lot of problems because of the badly documented data, uncertainties, secret handling, etc., therefore a significant revision and expansion of the presented material were planned. The efforts of the readers of the Catalogue for corrections and expansion of the material would be highly appreciated.

The compilation work was carried out at the Department of Steel Structures, TU Budapest. The undersigned got very valuable assistance during it from the late Sen. Assist. Prof. Mihály Farkas and Assist. Prof. László Horváth staff members, and from Gabriella Verõci, civil engineer.

In the name of the Catalogue Committee of the Conference BRIDGES ON THE DANUBE we are grateful to all of our colleagues for their activity.

In 1993 some new data and corrections were presented by Assoc. Prof. Ferenc Szépe and Dr. Herbert Träger.

A new revision of the Catalogue was carried out for the occasion of the second international conference "Bridges over the Danube" being held in Bucharest in September 1995. This version contains three new bridges additionally and some further corrections, additions to the previous material.

The CD version has been preparred for the third international conference "Bridges on the Danube" being held in Regensburg in October 1998, with the valuable contribution of the Local Committee (K. Zilch, G. Albrecht, A. Swaczyna, J. Weber)

Most of the bridges are illustrated by colour photos. The colour photos for the bridges of the Hungarian, Slovakian, Austrian and German Danube reach have been made by Dr. László Kristóf.

Compilation of the CD ROM has been made by Moare Ltd. (László Tóth, Tamás Bolberitz, Balázs Fekete, Balázs Juhász) in Budapest, Hungary. Send your feedbacks to tocsi@mail.datanet.hu

October 1998