Field Monitoring of Curved Girder Bridges with Integral Abutments

Project Details
STATUS

Completed

PROJECT NUMBER

08-323, TPF(5)169

START DATE

06/01/08

END DATE

01/01/14

FOCUS AREAS

Infrastructure

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, BEC, CTRE
SPONSORS

Federal Highway Administration Transportation Pooled Fund
Iowa Department of Transportation
Ohio Department of Transportation
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Brent Phares

Bridge Research Engineer, BEC

About the research

Nationally, there is concern regarding the design, fabrication, and erection of horizontally-curved steel girder bridges due to unpredicted girder displacements, fit-up, and locked-in stresses. One reason for the concerns is that up to one-quarter of steel girder bridges are being designed with horizontal curvature. The concerns are significant enough that a National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) research problem statement was developed and given high priority for funding.

It is also noted that an urgent need exists to reduce bridge maintenance costs by eliminating or reducing deck joints. This can be achieved by expanding the use of integral abutments to include curved girder bridges.

The long-term objective of this effort is to establish guidelines for the use of integral abutments with curved girder bridges. The primary objective of this work was to monitor and evaluate the behavior of six in-service, horizontally-curved, steel-girder bridges with integral and semi-integral abutments. In addition, the influence and behavior of fixed and expansion piers were considered.

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