Integral Abutments, Bearings and Deck Details for Alberta Bridges

Deck joints at abutments leak, jam and wear out, and the damage they cause to girder ends and bearings is one of the most common reasons an Alberta bridge ends up in rehabilitation. The details that avoid that outcome, from jointless abutments to the right reinforcing steel and a bearing that needs no maintenance, are decided at the design stage. This course takes you through the supporting design guidance and worked details that sit behind the main provincial bridge criteria.

You will start with integral bridges: the fully integral and semi-integral abutment types, when each suits the site, and how thermal movement, cycle control joints at the ends of the approach slabs, drainage, settlement, construction sequence and backfill affect performance. Standard sketches then show typical conventional, semi-integral and fully integral abutment details, wall layout and site drainage for low and high skew bridges, turned back wingwalls and approach geometry. The course explains how to choose corrosion resistant reinforcing, either solid stainless steel or low carbon chromium steel, from traffic volume and bridge deck area, and how to call it up on drawings. It covers the preferred bearing types in order of preference, their approximate capacities, and design rules for laminated elastomeric, pot, plain and fixed steel plate rocker bearings, including rotation tolerances, sole and base plates, sliding surfaces, concrete shear blocks and provision for jacking. A worked example checks strip seal deck joint movement on a skewed bridge, and a final module sets out when partial depth precast concrete deck panels may be accepted and how they must be designed, made and erected. It is aimed at bridge and structural engineers who design or check highway bridges in Alberta.

What Will Be Covered:

• Advantages of integral abutment bridges and the four abutment types

• Thermal movement, cycle control joints, drainage and settlement at integral abutments

• Construction sequence, backfill, erosion control and cyclic joint repair

• Standard abutment, wingwall, wall layout, site drainage and approach geometry sketches

• Choosing stainless or low carbon chromium corrosion resistant reinforcing by exposure class

• Order of preference and approximate capacities for bridge bearing types

• Design of laminated elastomeric, pot, plain and fixed steel plate rocker bearings

• Rotation tolerances, sole and base plates, sliding surfaces, shear blocks and jacking

• Worked example of strip seal deck joint movement on a skewed bridge

• Design, fabrication and erection of partial depth precast concrete deck panels