Precast concrete bridge continuity over piers

Book excerpt: Concrete bridges are an important part of today's road infrastructure. An important part of those concrete bridges is to a large extent prefabricated. Precast concrete enables all the advantages of an industrialized process to be fully utilized. Contemporary concrete mixtures are used to realize high-strength bridge girders and piers that exactly meet the requirements set, both structurally and aesthetically, with a small ecological footprint. Sustainable and durable! On the construction site, there is no need for complex formwork, the execution time is drastically reduced and where road, water and rail traffic on or under the bridge has to be temporarily interrupted, it is only minimally inconvenienced during the execution of the project. There is a wide variety of prefabricated bridges. In 2004, the fib commission on prefabrication already published the Bulletin 29 Precast concrete bridges which, in addition to the history of prefabricated bridges, also gave an overview of the different bridge types and structural systems. This document elaborates on one specific structural system: the continuous bridge. Task Group 6.5 "Precast concrete bridges" discusses in detail how to achieve continuity over the piers with precast elements. This bulletin bundles the experiences of experts in the field of bridge design so that less experienced designers would be able to identify the points of attention and make a correct design. In addition to the theoretical considerations, the principles are tested against three realizations in the USA and Europe. Commission 6 thanks the Co-Conveners Maher Tadros and Hugo Corres and all active members of the Task Group for sharing their knowledge and experience and for the successful realization of this bulletin.