Construction of the 480-metre-long bridge over the Sabarmati River for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail corridor has been completed. The bridge connects the Sabarmati and Ahmedabad bullet train stations, located approximately 1 km and 4 km from the structure respectively, and has been identified as a major infrastructure milestone in Ahmedabad.

The bridge stands approximately 36 metres tall, equivalent to a 12-storey building or around 118 feet. It is located beside Western Railway’s Ahmedabad–Delhi main line, which is approximately 14.8 metres above ground level. The rail alignment in Ahmedabad crosses several existing facilities, including flyovers, bridges, railway lines and metro corridors, requiring the bridge’s piers to be designed with additional height to maintain the necessary clearances.

The structure is supported by eight circular piers, each with a diameter ranging from 6 to 6.5 metres. Four piers are positioned within the riverbed, while two are located on the riverbanks and two outside them. This arrangement is intended to minimise obstruction to the river waterway. Unlike most river bridges on the corridor, which have spans of about 40 metres, the Sabarmati bridge uses spans ranging from 50 to 76 metres, reducing the number of piers required in the riverbed.

The bridge comprises five spans of 76 metres and two spans of 50 metres. Each span consists of 23 segments cast in-situ at the construction site, with construction involving precision engineering, specialised labour and quality checks at every stage. The structure was built using the Balanced Cantilever Method, which is suited to long-span bridges over rivers and deep waterways.

Under this method, the bridge deck was constructed without conventional scaffolding below it. Segments were erected successively from the piers and joined through post-tensioning, with balanced construction undertaken on both sides of each pier to create a stable and continuous superstructure. The corridor has 25 river bridges, including 21 in Gujarat and four in Maharashtra. Of the 21 planned in Gujarat, 18 have now been completed.