The Paks II canal bridge will be a special structure

Europe's longest canal bridge is the Magdeburg Canal Bridge, built to link the Rhine and Berlin shipping routes. The need for a canal bridge in Germany dates back to the 1930s, but the project was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. The need to build the canal bridge arose again in the 1990s, and after three years of planning and five years of construction, the canal bridge was opened to shipping in October 2003. The biggest challenge was the size of the bridge and the load transfer. The size and nature of the structure meant that in many cases the engineers had to find completely unique solutions.

The structure, which is designed to accommodate boat traffic and has a double-sided walkway structure that can accommodate up to one lorry each, is 43 metres wide and consists of two sections, a 780-metre-long floodplain section and a 220-metre-long embankment section, with a maximum pier spacing of 106 metres. In total, the pier supports 10,000 tonnes of load. The range of movement of the structures as a whole is about 1 metre, but thanks to the built-in dilatations they can tolerate a deviation of about 2 metres. Interestingly, the bridge has been given a light colour to reduce the thermal load on the structure.

During their visit to Magdeburg, the experts from Paks II. Zrt. obtained a wealth of information about the construction and operation of the bridge. A monitoring system has been installed in the canal bridge, allowing both the canal and individual elements to be monitored. In addition, geodetic points have been fixed along the entire length of the structure, documenting the bridge's movement and twisting in all three directions. Although the structure was designed to last a hundred years, experts say it could last up to two hundred years with proper ageing management. During its twenty-one years of operation, the canal bridge has been drained once, in 2008, and the next drainage is planned for next year. The experts at Paks II. are using this design and operational experience to support the design of the bridge structure to be built during the Paks II. project.

At the site of the Paks nuclear power plant, the operating and the units under construction will share the same cold water channel, over which the bridge structure will span to carry the cooling water recycled from Paks II. The structure is clearly visible in the visual plans of Paks II, as is the so-called peak cooling system along the hot water canal, which is intended to reduce the thermal load on the Danube. The system will enable Paks II to meet the strict environmental standards during the simultaneous operation of the six units of the two nuclear power plants.