Expansion joints

Expansion joints have the demanding task of bridging the movement gaps in the carriage way and foot paths of a bridge structure. They must be able to accommodate all the movements of the bridge without creating any constraint forces within the structure. Simultaneously, expansion joints must be able to ensure the safety of traffic and they must maintain a continuous water tight connection along the bridge surface.

Expansion joints became an essential element of bridge construction when stone arch bridges were replaced by the beam design steel and concrete bridges. These modern bridge construction techniques led to large expansion and contraction movements and saw an increase in demands from traffic volume, weight of vehicles and riding comfort.

To meet these demands mageba offers high quality and proven solutions. Examples of its product range include the single-gap expansion joint, the modular expansion joint, and the finger joint.

Since mageba invented the modular expansion joint more than 30 years ago, it has been successfully installed in hundreds of bridges world-wide. The mageba modular expansion joint can accommodate movements in excess of 2000mm, as was constructed for the Tsing Ma bridge in Hong Kong.

Special designs are available to overcome many of the challenges of modern bridge construction. For example, the mageba earthquake protection system and noise damping systems which are currently in high demand. The expansion joints installed on the Tagus crossing in Lisbon, Portugal is equipped with trumpet joist boxes and the patented fuse box, capable of withstanding large multidirectional earthquake displacements.

Subjects such as refurbishment and upgrading of existing bridges are gaining ever more significance in today’s world as many older bridges become overloaded with higher traffic volumes. To help balance this trend mageba offers a vast amount of experience for expert assessments, refurbishment, upgrades and total replacement projects.