Getting to the Pamban Bridge, in the state of Tamil Nadu, the old Madras in southeastern India, is a long journey. Travelling from Spain takes about two days, with an international flight followed by a local flight and then a three hour car ride for the last 180 km.
Getting to the moment of the inauguration, in March 2025, was also a long journey, which began seven years previous, and with the Covid pandemic during such time. As with any good trip, we had adventures, we met people and made new friends; we visited new places, learnt about Hindu traditions and we visited temples; we became accustomed to new accents; we adapted to new foods and new environments. There were good times, learning and enjoying the engineering challenges presented to us, and there were challenging times, rushing and managing pressure. A great opportunity to work with people from different parts of India and Europe, creatively designing solutions that bring together the interests of all.
The historic Pamban bridge dates back to heroic times of engineering. The typology of the mobile section, operated manually, is a patent by W. Scherzer, an American engineer of German origin at the end of the 19th century, who intuitively solved what we only now understand much better. The stories tell that it was so well balanced that it opened with only two people per blade of the bridge. The wear and tear, and the modifications made many years later to support heavier trains, required six or seven people on each side to open it in recent years, as we had the opportunity to see.
From its inauguration in 1914, until its closure in 2022, the bridge served many pilgrims travelling by train to the temples of Pamban Island. It suffered multiple typhoons, the worst in 1964, with gusts of wind of 240 km/h, taking the lives of about 200 people on the train that capsized as it passed over the bridge. Strong winds destroyed the access viaducts to the mobile bridge, but the main section withstood very little damage. Above all, it had to withstand the marine environment, which, with its warm temperatures and high humidity, competes as one of the most corrosive environments in the world. The metal structure has been repainted countless times with zinc plating layer upon layer, delaying, but unable to prevent, the relentless deterioration. When we arrived for the first visit, you could pick up pieces of the fully rolled steel with your hand, like flaky pastry.
Quite a responsibility to design a replacement for “The Queen of Indian Bridges”!
So many colleagues from the TYPSA Group were involved in the design and support services of the bridge over the years, making it impossible for me to name them all here. MC2, TYPSA Spain and TYPSA India have participated intensively to carry out the structural, mechanical and electrical design, including the monitoring and control of the bridge, and to supervise the work. It was a pleasure to see the bridge move surprisingly smoothly in the first tests in November 2024. Thank you all so much!
Until the next adventure!
