Around 1920, the Little Belt became a bottleneck for traffic. More and more cars had come on the roads, and we had been reunited with Southern Jutland. The question of a bridge across the Little Belt had been raised several times from the Folketing’s rostrum, and in March 1924 the Folketing decided to build a railway bridge over the Little Belt. After heavy pressure from the motor associations, the law was expanded in 1927 to also include a traffic bridge.
HISTORY
It was Anker Engelund who in 1923 was given responsibility for the preparation of a sketch project for a bridge over the Little Belt and was later responsible for the management of the large project.
The chosen solution was a cantilever bridge, which means that it became a lattice bridge that rests on the pillars according to a principle of equilibrium. The bridge had 5 openings above the water. The biggest technical problem was the foundation of the four power piers. The strong current in the belt can change from north to south within half an hour, and it was not possible to work with solid scaffolding due to water depth, current conditions and ice problems in winter.
The tender was issued in May 1928, after which 44 companies requisitioned the State Railways’ project, and 23 European companies submitted tenders. The tender included three parts: Mains, steel superstructure and mains with connecting bays.
It was the State Railways’ offer that won as both the cheapest and most appropriate project in terms of power piers and land bays. The construction company Monberg & Thorsen won the tender for the steel superstructure with a total bid of DKK 18,496,713. This offer was DKK 1.5 million cheaper than the next cheapest offer.
Monberg & Thorsen’s tender had been prepared in collaboration with three German companies, and DSB made it a condition for granting the contract that a joint company “International Bro- og Staalkonstruktion” was formed. Thus, all four companies were mutually liable for claims for damages, regardless of where in the construction process delays would occur.
The Old Little Belt Bridge rests on 4 power piers, the lower part of which is called a caisson. The solution with caissons, which was developed in connection with the construction. 100 workmen and carpenters were employed to build the caissings. The caisson boxes are a reinforced concrete structure that was cast on land.
After the lower part of the caisson boxes was finished, they were placed in the water off the coast, after which the upper part was built before the caisson boxes were placed in the Little Belt. The power piers were then cast on top using a floating concrete casting plant. The finished piers were about 70 meters high, of which about 40 meters are under water. At the top of the piers, a steel bracket was cast in for mounting the superstructure.
The superstructure was constructed as a self-supporting structure. A lattice structure was built on the piers – with a working platform of 30 metres. First, the grid structure was built on one side and then on the opposite side to create equilibrium. Then part after part was put together until the lattice constructions from 2 power piers collided.
All steel parts had been sandblasted, primed and painted 4 times before the parts were sailed out to the power piers and hoisted up to the assembly teams.
The Old Little Belt Bridge was built before welding was still used for larger structures. Therefore, all the steel is riveted together, and over 2 million rivets were used for the bridge. When it was time to rivet, it required 3 men for the task: the rivet heater to hold the rivet, the correspondent was responsible for the resistance and a riveter was responsible for the riveting itself with the pneumatic hammer.
With the location of the bridge, railway extensions became necessary. This became an extensive work in Fredericia, when it was decided that Fredericia Railway Station should have a new location – outside the rampart instead of by the harbour. A track extension of 12 km was made, and the new railway station took up no less than 70 hectares.
More limited was the work in Middelfart. Here, the railway was extended by 4.3 km, and the railway station was placed in the middle of the new line.
Work on the bridge began in December 1925, and the bridge was inaugurated by King Christian on 10 May 1935.
The total cost of the bridge and railway construction was DKK 42 million. Of this, the railway bridge cost DKK 16.7 million, the traffic bridge DKK 7.5 million, the road facilities DKK 1.6 million and the connecting railway facilities DKK 16.5 million.
