Founded | Warsaw, Poland (1858 | )
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Founder | Konstanty Rudzki |
Defunct | 1948 |
Fate | nationalised and dissolved after 1945 |
Successor | Fabryka Urządzeń Dźwigowych |
Headquarters | Warsaw and Mińsk Mazowiecki , Poland |
Number of locations | 2 |
Owner | Konstanty Rudzki |
Number of employees | 100 in 1860 221 in 1879 over 1000 in 1914[1][2] |
K. Rudzki i S-ka (Konstanty Rudzki & Co. Ltd.) was a Polish engineering and machinery company. Founded in Warsaw in 1858 as an iron foundry by a shipbuilding magnate Andrzej Artur Zamoyski and led by Konstanty Rudzki, it soon expanded into machinery, steel and engineering. By the end of the 19th century the company, with its seat in Warsaw and a large factory in Mińsk Mazowiecki, had become one of the largest and most experienced bridge construction contractors in Central and Eastern Europe,[3][2] with roughly 20% of bridges constructed in the Russian Empire bearing the logo of K. Rudzki. After World War I the company declined and ceased its machinery production arm, but continued on as an engineering and construction business. It was nationalised and liquidated after World War II.
Throughout its existence the company was responsible for some of the most innovative bridge undertakings in the world, including the 1914 Poniatowski Bridge, the 1916 Khabarovsk Bridge (for decades the longest bridge in Eurasia at over 2,500 metres in length) and the 1927 Maurzyce Bridge, the first welded road bridge in the world.