Vincent T. H. CHU

Basically, there are mainly three reasons for this arrangement:

(i) The permanent structure is a statically indeterminate structure. During construction by using span-by-span construction, if the first phase of construction consists of the first span length L only, then the sagging moment in the mid span of the partially completed bridge is larger than that of completed two-span permanent structure. To avoid such occurrence, 0.25L of bridge segment is extended further from the second pier which provides a counteracting moment, thereby reducing the mid-span moment of the partially completed bridge.

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The advantages in using in using lightweight aggregates in bridges:

(i) Owing to reduced dead load by using lightweight aggregates, there are savings in structural material such as the cost of foundation and falsework.

(ii) It brings about environmental benefits when industrial waste products are used to manufacture lightweight aggregates.

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If a box-girder type bridge is purposely chosen because of its torsional strength, then the torsional stiffness and resistance should be considered in design. However, it is commonly accepted to assume that torsional stiffness of a beam to be negligible so that it saves the complexity to provide reinforcement to resist torsion. As such, this would result in higher bending moments induced in the beam.

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At-rest soil pressure is developed during the construction of bridge abutment. Active soil pressure are developed when the abutment are pushed forward by backfilled soils at the back of abutment wall. A state of equilibrium shall be reached when the at-rest pressure is reduced to active earth pressure. Hence, at-rest pressure is considered when assessing the stability of abutment while active pressure is adopted when assessing the adequacy of structural elements of abutment.

Passive pressure is only considered in integral abutment which experiences passive pressure when the deck expands under thermal effects.

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The magnitude of earth pressure coefficient in calculating the earth pressure on bridge abutment depends significantly on the degree of restraint provided by the abutment. For example, active earth pressure is usually adopted for cantilever abutment because there is possible occurrence of small relieving movements.

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For multiple-cell box girders, there are generally two arrangements. The first one is that independent cells are connected by their top flanges only while the other one is that the cells are connected both at the top and bottom flanges. From the structural point of view, it is recommended to adopt the second arrangement. For the case of cells connected by top flanges only, their flanges are heavily stressed in the transverse direction owing to flexure which cannot be effectively distributed across the cross section.

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There are three common arrangements of wing walls in bridge abutments based on Dr. Edmund C Hambly (1979):

(i) Wing walls parallel to abutments
This is the simplest and shortest time to build but is not the most economical design. This design has the advantage that it has least disturbance to existing slope embankment.

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From aesthetic point of view, an odd number of spans with a decrease in length in the direction of abutment is desirable. Moreover, spans of equal length are found to be boring. However, the arrangement of irregular span lengths is not recommended because it gives a feeling of uneasiness.

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In the conventional design of steel reinforcement for a simply supported skew bridge, a set of reinforcement is usually placed parallel to free edge while the other set is designed parallel to the fixed edge. However, this kind of arrangement is not the most efficient way of placing the reinforcement.

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In designing the number of cells for concrete box girder bridges, in case the depth of a box girder bridge exceeds 1/6 or 1/5 of the bridge width, then it is recommended to be designed as a single cell box girder bridge. However, if the bridge depth is smaller than 1/6 of the bridge width, then a twin-cell or multiple cell is a better. However, one should note that even for wider bridges with small depths, the number of cells should be minimized because there is not much improvement in transverse load distribution when the number of cells of box girder is increased to three or more.

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