Doka India completes work on largest cable

By Catrin Jones28 June 2023

Doka formwork and engineering solutions have been successfully utilised in the construction of a 900-metre central cable-stayed bridge in Dwarka, India.

The bridge spans a length of 2.5 km and consists of four lanes, measuring 29.6 metres in width. Additionally, the project incorporates 3.5 km of retaining walls and 1.42 km of approach on each side.

The bridge features the largest span of any cable-stayed bridge in India, with a total length of 500 metres between the two pylons. The structure is supported by 76 cables, and the most challenging aspect of the endeavour was said to be designing the curved pylons, which are inclined at 20.1 degrees at the centre, 22.6 degrees to the left, and 19 degrees to the right.

Consequently, the formwork solution required a customized approach to meet the specific engineering requirements of the completed structure.

Doka India was awarded the contract to provide a formwork solution for the two ‘A’ shaped composite pylons. These pylons, situated in the open waters of the Gulf of Kutch, reach a height of 130 metres.

Yogesh Patil, Doka India Group Leader Engineering, and Pramendra Singh, Doka India Project Engineer tackled the challenging nature of this project.

Additionally, the Doka Formwork Instructor team, comprising Ash Narayan Singh and Bijaya Kumar Swain, developed a solution that fulfilled the project’s requirements and conducted on-site training for other stakeholders, ensuring a safe and efficient construction process.

As part of the project’s product solution, Doka’s SKE50, SKE100, SKE100 plus, Top 50 and Shaft Platform were used throughout in order to support the timely execution.

Mr. Singh, commented, “While several of our core products were used in the construction process, our key asset, particularly when it came to the pylons was our Automatic climbing formwork SKE plus.

“Designed to be completely crane-independent, and fully modular, we were able to work around the unique and complex shape of the pylon, while remaining protected both from the weather and height. As a fully hydraulic system, it also meant that a lot of time could be saved during repositioning.”