Design Guide Economic and Durable Design of Composite Bridges with Integral Abutments

Bridges are of vital importance to the European infrastructure and composite bridges already became a popular solution in many countries and a well-established alternative to concrete bridges. Their competitiveness depends on several circumstances such as site conditions, local costs of material and staff and the contractor’s experience. One outstanding advantage of composite bridges compared to concrete bridges is that the steel girders can carry the weight of the formwork and the fresh concrete during casting. Another major advantage is the savings in construction time, which reduces the traffic disturbance, consequently saves money for the contractor but even more for the road users; a fact that for a long time has been neglected. Recently this factor is increasingly drawn into focus as latest studies show the necessity of taking not only the simple production costs but also the construction time and the maintenance costs into account when deciding for a specific bridge type. Thus nowadays the following demands are imposed on bridge structures, which are all met by the construction of composite bridges
• low production and maintenance costs
• short construction time, saving costs for traffic disturbances
• bridge construction without essential interference of the traffic under the bridge
• minimised traffic disturbance for maintenance
All these needs are met by integral abutment bridges as well. In addition, this bridge type holds the potential to outclass traditional bridges with transition joints as it does not only reduce production and maintenance costs but saves economic and socio-economic costs as well.
• The superstructure can be designed quite slender, which decreases the construction height and the earthworks respectively. This leads to a further decrease of material, fabrication, transport and construction costs.
• Frame bridges allow in certain spans for the elimination of the middle support. This simplifies the construction of the bridge without essential interference of the traffic under the bridge, as the road has not to be closed.
• Due to the absence of bearings and joints, the maintenance costs can be decreased significantly.
This design guide is addressed to designers, constructors, owners and authorities to help them during the whole process of decision making, planning, design and construction of integral abutment bridges.

Pavement Design Manual

This Manual provides a comprehensive guideline to be followed by engineering consultants for pavement design for new roadway and final stage pavement construction, including reconstruction and widening, and rehabilitation. Engineering consultants are responsible for the surfacing strategy and detailed structural pavement design on roadway design project assignments. For the purposes of this Manual, pavement refers to all layers of the pavement structure above the subgrade. An objective of the Manual is to ensure a degree of consistency in designs provided by engineering consultants by following specific structural design methodologies within a general framework. At the same time the design process provides sufficient flexibility to allow for the judgement and innovation by experienced pavement design engineers to address the specific conditions of each project.
Alberta Transportation and Utilities (AT&U) will continue to be the custodian of all pavement evaluation, management and inventory data. These data will be available for use by engineering consultants. AT&U=s role in the design process will be to review pavement designs provided by consultants for completeness, conformance to the design philosophies and methodologies outlined in the Manual, and to ensure that the design is supported by appropriate engineering investigation and evaluation.

Design of Bridge Deck Drainage

The manual provides guidelines and procedures for designing bridge deck drainage systems, including illustrative examples. It includes design theory, step-by-step design procedures, and illustrative examples. Drainage system design is approached from the viewpoints of hydraulic capacity, traffic safety, structural integrity, practical maintenance, and architectural aesthetics. System hardware components, such as inlets, pipes, and downspouts, are described. Guidance for selecting a design gutter spread and flood frequency are provided. System details and existing computer models are discussed.

Durability of Concrete