Glass fiber reinforced material

Pultruded composite panels create space for cyclists and pedestrians on the Marschall Jozef Pilsudski bridge in Poland. The walkway slab consists of 8 solid pultruded interlocking three-layer cavity profiles made of glass fibre reinforced composite material with a cross section of 500mm x 150mm. Due to its low weight, the glass fibre-reinforced composite panels allow the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge to expand from 2m to 4.5m wide, thus creating a safe space for cyclists.

Since further widening with steel webs would not be able to support the existing bridge structure, the expansion scheme uses a lightweight fiberglass composite structure. In return, the bridge owner gets a low-maintenance, low-cost solution.

German company Fibrolux produced a custom mould for the new oversized bridge profile in 2020 and then started producing the 16km long profile using the fiberglass assembled roving and mat combination. The pultruded sections are cut to length and shipped to the construction site. There, they are assembled with special stainless steel fasteners and then coated with a non-slip coating, creating panels of approximately four meters by ten meters. Due to the low weight of the pultruded section, it can be lifted into position with a small crane.

#composites #fiberglass