The Novosibirsk Rail Bridge is a single-track bridge across the Ob River, a component of the original Trans-Siberian Railway mainline, was designed by Nikolai Belelubsky and built between 1893 and 1897. Its location, selected by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky near Krivoschekovo village (), is believed to have influenced Novosibirsk's founding.
Selecting the place where the TransâÂÂSiberian Railway would cross the Ob River turned out to be a difficult task. One proposed route, which would have taken the line through Omsk, Kolyvan and Tomsk, required building a bridge at a point where the Ob flooded widely every spring. Consequently, the planners later decided to shift the line 30â¯km south of Kolyvan and to build a separate branch to Tomsk.
It is commonly believed that the work of defining the new crossing segment over the Ob was carried out by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky â a man known not only as a railway engineer but also as a writer. He proposed the only sufficiently narrow stretch where rock outcrops reached the surface. However, other opinions exist. Nikolai Mikhailovsky, as head of the combined survey party, merely endorsed the proposal of the partyâÂÂs chief fieldâÂÂengineer, the Polish specialist Vikentiy Ivanovich Roetsky (also rendered as VikentiyâÂÂIgnatius Roetsky), and, in his capacity as party leader, drafted an explanatory note to accompany RoetskyâÂÂs data.
Roetsky, besides his investigations near Kolyvan, also examined another site further south â near the village of Kryvoà ¡ÃÂékovo. In MikhailovskyâÂÂs explanatory note attached to the bridgeâÂÂpier design that Roetsky prepared for this location, it was written that âÂÂthe bridge would be 360 sazhen shorter, which, at a cost of 8,000â¯rubles per sazhen of bridge, would save up to 3â¯million rubles.âÂÂ[2]
Later, Nikolai Mikhailovsky explained his decision as follows:
âÂÂOn a 160âÂÂverst stretch this is the only place where the Ob, as the peasants say, is âÂÂin a pipe.â In other words, both banks and the riverbed are rocky here. Moreover, this is the narrowest part of the floodplain: at Kolyvan the river expands 12â¯verst during a flood, whereas here it widens only 400 sazhen.âÂÂ[3]
At the end of Augustâ¯1891, a field meeting was held in the village of BolâÂÂshoye Kryvoà ¡ÃÂékovo. Three senior imperial officials took part: Konstantin Mikhaylovsky, head of the Railway Construction Administration for the WestâÂÂSiberian section; General Vladimirâ¯Berezin (future contractor); and Vikentiy Roetsky, commander of the survey team. They examined the hydrographic data presented by Roetsky onâÂÂsite and made the final decision to recommend the crossing at the local cattle ford. This set the location for the first railway bridge over the Ob in the Kryvoà ¡ÃÂékovo area.
The bridge spanning the Ob River near the village of Krivoà ¡ÃÂekovo at the 1,328âÂÂkm mark of the West Siberian Railway was built according to a project by Professor Nikolaiâ¯Belelubsky, a distinguished construction engineer and scholar of building mechanics.
The structure consists of 9 spans. Each span rests on stone piers made of locally quarried granite, which were set on a granite bedrock foundation in the river channel.
In the superstructure, Beleleubskiy employed semiâÂÂparabolic trusses with a vertical support column and a single curved lower chord, arranged in a doubleâÂÂbraced lattice system. The doubleâÂÂbraced configuration provides high rigidity, shortens the length of each panel, and reduces the overall weight of the bridge components. The presence of the vertical support column simplifies the design of the bearing assembly and the supporting frame, making it easier to connect the transverse bearing beams to the trusses.
In addition, Beleleubskiy introduced a refinement known in bridge engineering worldwide as the "Russian system": a "freeâÂÂmoving deck" that allows the roadway (or railway) to expand and contract independently of the main trussâÂÂan innovation that later became a standard feature in many longâÂÂspan bridges.
The steel members of the bridge trusses, with a total mass of 4,423â¯tonnes (âÂÂâ¯270â¯thousandâ¯poods), were fabricated in the Urals at the Votkinsk Plant under the supervision of contractorâÂÂengineer Vladimirâ¯Berezin.
Clearance: the minimum distance from the lowâÂÂwater mark of the Ob to the trusses is 17.5â¯m (âÂÂâ¯57â¯ft); from the floodâÂÂlevel mark it is 9.5â¯m (âÂÂâ¯31â¯ft). Construction period: four years, at a cost of about 2â¯millionâ¯Roubles (the lateâÂÂ19thâÂÂcentury Russian currency, roughly equivalent to several hundred thousand U.S. dollars at the time). Overall length: 372.5â¯sazhen (âÂÂâ¯795â¯m or 2,608â¯ft, just under 0.5â¯mile), composed of nine spans.
All piers are stone, set on granite bedrock. Except for pierâ¯I (on the right bank), each pier rests on a caisson sunk to depths ranging from 1.73â¯m to 7.25â¯m (âÂÂâ¯5ýâÂÂ24â¯ft) below the lowâÂÂwater level. The approach embankment rises to about 15â¯m (âÂÂâ¯49â¯ft) on the left bank and 10â¯m (âÂÂâ¯33â¯ft) on the right bank.
In 1896 the bridge underwent load testing, during which four locomotives crossed the structure. On 31â¯Marchâ¯1897 the bridge was formally opened to traffic. Situated on the railway line between the Krivoà ¡ÃÂekovo station of the West Siberian Railway and the Ob station of the Middle Siberian Railway, it linked the latter to the broader national rail network (the station names reflect the periodâÂÂs terminology and should not be confused with contemporary designations).
The chief construction engineer was G.â¯M.â¯Budagov. He later recalled his collaboration with N.â¯G.â¯GarinâÂÂMikhailovsky on the road, bridge, and station projects with gratitude:
âÂÂThe work of our witty, talented comrade Nikolaiâ¯Georgievich Mikhailovsky⦠gave the whole life of the builders, their labor, a particularly vivid and pleasant hue.âÂÂ
In the 1930s, after the completion of the twoâÂÂtrack Komsomol (KIM) railway bridge and the construction of a freight bypass around Novosibirsk, the "old" bridge lost its former importance and was thereafter generally used only for passenger trains passing through the city centre.
In Aprilâ¯1984, the second set of riverâÂÂspanning bridge girdersâÂÂmetal trussesâÂÂwas installed on the piers of the first railway bridge over the Ob River. BridgeâÂÂbuilding crew No.â¯429âÂÂa mobile bridgeâÂÂbuilding unitâÂÂof the West Siberian Railway erected these spans from 15.7â¯thousand metal components weighing a total of 4.5â¯thousand tonnes. Construction of the new spans had begun in 1974. For the work, the approach embankments to the bridge were washed out, receiving 78â¯thousandâ¯mó of fill, and a roadway more than a kilometer long was built to the leftâÂÂbank pier to haul steel, concrete and other materials.
To verify the reliability of the existing piers, specialists from Leningrad drilled into the pier bodies and the rock foundations that supported the old bridgeâÂÂs piers. Their conclusion was that the same piers could carry a secondâÂÂtrack superstructure. The Ministry of Railways of the USSR decided to build a new bridge while later dismantling the old superstructure, which no longer met the requirements for heavy train traffic.
A threeâÂÂruble commemorative coin was issued for the 100âÂÂyear anniversary of the TransâÂÂSiberian Railway (Bank of Russia, 1994).
The design of the new bridge was prepared by the Moscow Institute of Highway and Transport Engineering (GIPROTRANSPUT). After the Novosibirsk Hydroelectric Power Station went into operation, spring iceâÂÂbreakup in the cityâÂÂs vicinity ceased, eliminating the need for the "starlings" (cutwaters) that had been attached to the old bridgeâÂÂs piers. Bridge engineers raised seven reinforcedâÂÂconcrete piers on the foundations of the former iceâÂÂbreakers and constructed two new abutments on the banks. The installation of the truss spans between the piersâÂÂeach about 100â¯m (âÂÂâ¯328â¯ft) longâÂÂwas carried out by a hangingâÂÂassembly method, moving from pier to pier with cranes that traveled over and within the truss sections.
In 1991, traffic over the old railway bridge stopped, and demolition began in 2000. The new metal bridge was assembled using highâÂÂstrength bolts that allowed a faster erection of the superstructure. This efficient, scaffoldâÂÂfree construction technique, which did not require temporary falsework or welding in place, was employed for the first time in Novosibirsk. The projected budget for the work was 8â¯millionâ¯RUB. In terms of aesthetic qualities, the new superstructure, though more powerful and larger, does not quite match the historic charm of the old bridge, which had faithfully served the great Siberian rail line for nearly a century.
Today, the old bridgeâÂÂs superstructures have been removed, and a singleâÂÂtrack railway line again runs across the bridge. The bridge piers and the embankments on both banks remain, allowing a future expansion back to doubleâÂÂtrack capacity if needed. One of the original span structures has been preserved as a museum exhibit on the cityâÂÂs riverside promenade in the âÂÂGorodskoye Nachaloâ (City Beginning) park.