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Q355B Steel Connecting Corridor Skybridge with Sliding Bearing End and 30m Clear Span for Campus and Hospital
| MOQ: | 1 PCS/20 Tons |
| Price: | $1300-3000 |
| Standard Packaging: | Sea-worthy bundles; main frames and crane beams in 40 ft open-top |
| Delivery Period: | 30-60 Days |
| Payment Method: | L/C,D/P,T/T,D/A |
| Supply Capacity: | 15,000 t / month |
Q355B Steel Connecting Corridor
,Sliding Bearing End Skybridge
,30m Clear Span Steel Skybridge
Fixed at one end · Sliding at the other · Q355B box or H girders · Glazed or panel
A steel connecting corridor looks like a small building on legs. It is not. A building sits on its own foundation and moves on its own; a corridor is tied to two buildings that settle differently, expand differently and sway differently. The span is the easy part. The bearings are the design.
Whatever a steel connecting corridor is fixed to, it inherits that structure's movement — and the two ends never match.
- Differential settlement. Two towers on different foundations settle by different amounts. A rigid corridor between them converts that difference into bending it was never designed for.
- Thermal movement. An exposed 30 m corridor changes length by about 14 mm over a 40 °C swing, and the enclosure changes with it.
- Seismic drift. Two buildings with different periods move out of phase. In an earthquake the corridor ends are pulled apart, then pushed together.
All three are handled the same way: fix one end, let the other slide. The fixed end takes the horizontal load; the sliding end has a bearing with a designed travel, usually a long-slotted hole or a PTFE pad, plus a restraint so the corridor cannot lift off or walk out of position.
It is not a gap left in a weld. A sliding bearing has a known travel, a known friction, and a stop at each end of the travel. The corridor is restrained vertically and laterally, and free longitudinally within the calculated range.
The movement figure comes from the structural engineer: settlement plus thermal plus seismic, combined. The bearing is then selected for that figure with a margin. If a fabricator offers a corridor without asking for that number, the design is not finished — it is just a beam.
Short corridors, up to about 20 m, are usually H-section girders with a composite or precast floor. Between 20 m and 35 m, a welded box girder is the normal choice: torsional stiffness matters once the corridor is glazed on both sides and the wind load has somewhere to go.
Beyond that, or where depth is limited, a truss does the job. As a rule of thumb, a box girder runs at about 1/15 to 1/25 of the span in depth, so a 30 m corridor needs 1.2 m to 2.0 m of structure — which is often more than the architect has allowed for.
A light, long corridor can be perfectly strong and still feel wrong to walk on. Pedestrian loading is dynamic, and a corridor whose natural frequency sits near the walking frequency will bounce visibly.
The fix is stiffness or damping, decided at design stage. It is not something that can be corrected after the glazing goes in, and it is one more reason a corridor is not a warehouse with windows.
Corridors are usually installed where there is no room to work: over a road, across a courtyard, between two occupied buildings.
The common method is to assemble the corridor on the ground, lift it in one piece with a large mobile crane during a night closure, and land it on pre-set corbels. Where a single lift is not possible, it goes up in two or three segments on temporary towers, with the splices designed as bolted connections.
Either way, the lifting points, the temporary support positions and the splice locations belong on the fabrication drawing. They are not site decisions.
A corridor over a road is usually required to have a fire resistance and a clearance below it. Both affect the structure: a protected soffit adds weight, and a shallow structure over a road may need a truss rather than a girder.
The interface is where projects go wrong. Corbels or brackets on an existing building need post-installed anchors with a tested capacity, and the load has to go into a member that can take it — not into a cladding rail. We ask for the corbel detail and the anchor design before we release the fabrication drawing.
| Span & Dimensions | Span between supports, plus the corridor width and clear height |
|---|---|
| Movement Figure | Movement at the sliding end: settlement, thermal and seismic |
| Girder Preference | H-section, box or truss |
| Enclosure | Glazed, panel, or open with a railing |
| Fire & Clearance | Fire resistance and clearance below, if over a road |
| Erection Method | Single lift or segments, and the crane available |
| Building Connection | Corbel or bracket detail at the existing buildings |
Send these and we return the member sizes, the bearing arrangement and a quotation.
Because the two buildings move differently. A corridor fixed at both ends becomes a brace between them, and the forces it picks up are far beyond what a corridor is designed for. One end slides so the movement has somewhere to go.
The combination of differential settlement, thermal movement and seismic drift, with a margin. For a 30 m exposed corridor the thermal part alone is around 14 mm over a 40 °C swing.
Box up to about 35 m where depth allows. A truss when the depth is restricted or the span is longer. Below 20 m an H-section girder is usually enough.
Yes, but the glazing system has to follow the same movement as the structure. A rigid frame with a sliding bearing and a fully restrained curtain wall is a conflict that shows up as cracked glass.
Usually assembled on the ground, lifted in one piece during a night closure and landed on pre-set corbels. Where that is not possible, it goes up in segments on temporary towers.
We detail it, but the anchor design and the load check on the existing member belong to the project engineer. We need that detail before the fabrication drawing is released.
If it crosses a road or a means of escape, usually yes — and the protected soffit adds weight that the girder has to carry. Say so at enquiry stage.
Send the span, the movement figure and the support detail. We return the member sizes, the bearing arrangement and a quotation.
