Basis of design of relevant widenings of the deck of exiting bridges. Case studies of major bridges

Abstract

The widening of the deck of a bridge or the retrofitting to increase the load capacity are activities that require a careful analysis and usually the use of powerful calculations tools and evolutive structural models to properly define the selected sequence of construction.

This paper is presenting the basis of design to be used as guidelines of the design of the widening or strengthening of major bridges. It is also included the presentation of four examples of widenings of bridges having 150m+ main span length, recently constructed in Spain. The said basis of design, the selected structural scheme and related load paths ant some particular properties of the structural models used for the calculations are presented.