e-mosty December 2017 MSS and Formwork Travellers | Page 6

THE EVOLUTION OF MOVABLE SCAFFOLDING SYSTEMS
AND THEIR APPLICATION IN CONSTRUCTION OF THE
SPANISH HIGH SPEED TRAIN LINE
Antonio Póvoas, AP- Bridge Construction Systems – Portugal, Ltd.
Figure 1: Almonte Viaduct – Approach of nose MSS to central span
Introduction
The evolution of pre-stressing technology has allowed
bridge designers to face the construction of bridge
decks using continuous spans and increasing their
length, aiming to reduce the cost and duration of
bridge construction. Movable equipment for the
construction of the decks are evolving according to
this tendency and sometimes preceding it, allowing
larger spans to be built in shorter periods.
The mobile equipment for building bridge decks are
basically divided into two main groups:


For building decks with precast beams, segments or
the entire deck there are special equipment that we
shall not discuss in this article.
For building decks “in situ” there are basically three
groups of movable equipment:
1. Movable formwork tables
2. Movable Scaffolding Systems (MSS)
- Underslung
- Overhead
Precast decks or segments
Cast “in situ” decks or segments
3. Travellers (not analysed in this article)
4/2017