Spread Prestressed Concrete Slab Beam Bridges: Fid-Bau Portal

Spread Prestressed Concrete Slab Beam Bridges

Hueste M. B. D. / Mander J. B. / Terzioglu T. / Jiang D. / Petersen-Gauthier J.

TxDOT uses prestressed slab beam bridges for short-span bridges ranging from approximately 30–50 ft in length. These bridges have precast, pretensioned slab beams placed immediately adjacent to one another with a cast-in-place slab made composite with the beams. While these bridges are used extensively, they are more expensive than traditional prestressed I-beam structures on a per-square-foot basis. The objective of this project was to investigate the use of slab beams that are spread apart with precast panel stay-in-place forms between beams and a cast-in-place concrete deck, and to develop appropriate design guidelines for this alternate spread slab beam bridge system. The project objectives were met through a series of tasks. The research team reviewed the relevant literature and the current state of the practice. Preliminary designs were developed to assess the potential of a spread slab beam bridge system. A full-scale spread slab beam bridge was constructed at the Texas A&M University Riverside Campus and tested to assess constructability, in-service performance, and behavior. Field testing was conducted for the Riverside Bridge and a US 69 on-system bridge to evaluate load distribution behavior and to provide data to guide analytical modeling of this bridge system. Additional analytical models were developed to investigate an array of possible bridge geometries and load sharing behavior. Based on these models, recommendations were developed for load distribution factor relationships for the design of spread slab beam bridges.