On 12 November 2024 Kilian Karius and Pekka Pulkkinen (WSP Finland) were priviledged in receving the IABSE Outstanding Paper Award in the “Technical Report” cateogory at the IABSE Awards 2024 and Gala Dinner in Zurich. They represented their team of authors - Giridhar Rajagopalan, Mandar Karnik, Pekka Pulkkinen, Kilian Karius and Shashank Rajbhoj - who published together the paper titled "Chenab Bridge - Constructing the World's Tallest Railway Bridge".

The paper is available for free download on the publisher's website:
Chenab Bridge - "the World's Tallest Railway Bridge" 

Project Details

The evening, hosted by TV presenter and journalist Philipp Bächstädt, kicked off with the People and Paper Awards featuring inspiring speeches from Klaus Ostenfeld (International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering) and Ian Firth (IABSE Member of the Year).

The night continued with a formidable Swiss menue being served before the Project Awards, where truly remarkable projects were shortlisted across all nine categories. As Ian Firth put it, all nominated projects are winners — and we are thankful that this year’s nominees included the exceptional Skuru Bridge by Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner and Dissing+Weitling in the category of Large Road and Rail Bridges.

What stood out most was that the IABSE Awards aren’t just about recognizing excellence, but about celebrating structural engineering as a whole and highlighting the challenges of our future. It was a wonderful evening of networking, discussion, and the exchange of ideas with fellow engineers.