Dutch roads authority Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) required a sustainable and long-term solution to extend the lifespan of the ageing Galecopper bridge, a critical transport link in the Netherlands. The Galecopper bridge is the second busiest bridge in the country and has experienced increasing traffic volumes, making a retrofit necessary to ensure continued safety and functionality without requiring a complete replacement.

Over the past 15 years, Arup has designed a series of targeted renovations to keep the bridge safely open to all traffic. Renovation works included raising the bridge’s height with an additional superstructure, and strengthening the deck with high-strength concrete (HSC) to prevent further fatigue damage caused by the ever-increasing traffic load. Most recently, Arup’s team of bridge designers created an innovative cable replacement scheme which allows the bridge to remain open during the upgrades. Our team integrated a digital monitoring system to track performance in real-time.

The retrofit has extended the life span by another 30 years, which reduces the need for replacement, and ensure structural safety. Not having to replace the bridge allows us to keep emissions low and maintaining the bridge in operation during construction minimised traffic disruption, preserving its role as a vital transport link.

Tackling ageing infrastructure with innovative design solutions

A growing number of road authorities and operators are struggling with ageing infrastructure: roads and bridges need continuous maintenance to combat wear and tear with increasing traffic volumes. Arup supported Rijkswaterstaat in addressing this challenge on the Galecopper Bridge through innovative design solutions.

Given the increasing traffic volumes and complex structural system of the bridge, Arup's bridge engineers conducted multiple structural assessments. To replace the ageing stay cables, we designed a plan to replace the locked coil cables with a system of parallel strands to allow the bridge to remain open during the replacement. To cover the time between design and construction, we designed and tested a temporary reinforcement solution and implemented real-time performance monitoring.

As a result, Rijkswaterstaat can keep the Galecopper Bridge and other existing bridges safely open. This reduces the need to replace bridges, resulting in less traffic disruption, sustainable solutions and cost reduction.

Structural health monitoring

Our team of experts have monitored the structural health of the bridge to investigate its behaviour. Monitoring and measurements were performed to validate and calibrate our analysis models, to derive bespoke traffic models, to monitor the structural safety of the existing stay cables and to measure permanent forces in pylons and cable system.

Arup works with Rijkswaterstaat and industry partners to implement the physical monitoring systems. Arup has developed a digital cloud-based structural health monitoring service that allows for the storage and processing of large amounts of data, and the interpretation by our bridge engineers to produce meaningful and actionable insights. 

Arup designed a scheme which made it possible to replace the stay cables with continuing traffic on the bridge and to extend the lifespan of the Galecopper Bridge with another 30 years.

Grietske van Bodegom

Project Manager, Rijkswaterstaat