Development of Cost-Effective Accelerated Bridge Construction in Skew and Right Alignments

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The use of prefabricated elements and systems in accelerating construction of new bridges and replacement of deteriorated ones has recently been the subject of much attention and interest amongst bridge jurisdictions. Prefabricated elements and systems can be quickly assembled and could reduce design efforts, reduce the impact on the environment in the vicinity of the site, and minimize the delays and lane closure time and inconvenience to the traveling public, saving time and tax payers’ money. One of these systems involve full-depth, full width, precast concrete deck slab placed transversally over steel or concrete girders where grout pockets are provided to accommodate clusters of shear connectors welded to steel girders or embedded in concrete girders. The Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code does not provide enough guidance or specifications for the economical design of such prefabricated bridge system in skew and right alignments. Literature review revealed a number of important unresolved analysis, design and performance issues which require detailed evaluation. These issues include: (i) the dead and live load distribution coefficients for non-composite bridges in skew alignment at construction stage during precast deck placement; (ii) live load distribution coefficients for composite bridges in skew alignment at ultimate serviceability and fatigue limit states; (iii) capacity of stud clusters at ultimate and fatigue limit states as opposed to single stud applications, incorporating ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) in shear puckets; (iv) precast panel-to-panel connection within bridge span for strength and long-term durability (i.e. water leakage); (v) precast panel-to-panel connection, incorporating glass fibre polymer (GFRP) bars with headed ends and UHPC at the negative moment region to add to the strength of the composite girder at ultimate and fatigue limit states; (vi) follow-up field study on actual bridges to verify the finite-element computer modeling for truck load distribution and to observe interaction of the various system components under actual field conditions. The aim of this research is to contribute to the efficient design of such prefabricated bridges by developing experimentally calibrated, computer based, analytical models capable of predicting accurately their response due to sequence of construction, truck load history and environmental conditions. The proposed research program for the next 5 years fosters interaction with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation that will provide data on bridges built in Ontario with full-depth, full-width, deck panels and facilitate field testing. In the long term, more reliable and economical expressions and methodology for design of such prefabricated bridge system will be generated for possible inclusion in the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code. This study is expected to result in a more economical prefabricated bridge design process, with potentially significant cost savings to bridge owners. Field data and full-scale experimental results will provide a meaningful feedback to bridge designers, leading to a new generation of minimal maintenance bridges, detailed for inherent durability.