Bridge and Highway Structure Rehabilitation and Repair

Abstract

During the author’s career as a consulting engineer and teacher of structural engineering subjects, it was observed that few textbooks are available on bridge design or inspection and rating. Bridge engineering background information needs to be presented beyond AASHTO LRFD specifi cations and the manual for condition evaluation and LRFR for highway bridges. What is especially needed is coverage of recent state-of-the-art developments. A bridge engineer has to face many aspects—structural and otherwise. This book is about problem solving and providing an insight into important issues. As a bridge engineer and teacher of modern bridge engineering, I fi nd that there is a need for a book to address new technology on planning, detailed design, and rehabilitation aspects. Topics such as seismic retrofi ts and scour countermeasures need to be summed up in the form of a book for the benefi ts of students and practicing engineers. Although AASHTO LRFD and state codes have also been updated to include some of the changes, they take time to catch up with innovations and incorporate new procedures. They serve as guidelines and do not aim at educating the reader with fundamentals. Some state codes are more enterprising in developing the technology compared to federal codes. The subject matter covered by these voluminous specifi cations is extensive, diverse, in-depth, mathematical, and at times not so easy to understand by bridge engineers. This book will serve basically as a companion reference manual to the codes and specifi cations, with emphasis on new topics, and it will focus on both traditional and nontraditional design problems. Practicing engineers continuously fi nd the need for a book which can simplify the presentation and make it more palatable for offi ce use. A book should address the state of art of bridge engineering, highlight major issues, offer necessary explanations, provide sample solved examples for the day-to-day design issues, and use case studies of practical problems. If the developments in the subject are reported by this book and understood by teachers and students at the university level, future practicing engineers will have a jump-start and the purpose of the book will be well served. OBJECTIVES The issues are basically presenting an overall perspective of the multi-billion dollar transportation industry, the resulting advantages of which to the society appear to surpass those offered by other disciplines, except perhaps the medical profession. Indeed, transportation is a complement even to the medical profession, by facilitating an ambulance’s trip to the hospital in the shortest time, without being stuck in a traffi c jam or delayed by a roadway closed for repairs. The book’s theme and scope are about engineering the rehabilitation and repairs of existing highways bridges in an effi cient and cost-effective manner. Its special features are about facing “ground realities” or “river realities” when “fi xing the bridge.” No more mathematics should be required than is actually needed, since mathematical technique is a means to an end and is not an end in itself. Innovative ideas for structural planning and precast connection details developed by design and sometimes construction teams over the years will be presented, making this book uniqu