Bridges and Pre-stressed Concrete Design, Retrofit and Evaluation
WIN Structural provides its client from the public and private sectors with a strong portfolio in bridges design and evaluation. WIN engineers have wide expertise in international projects as well as CALTRANS experience for California projects whether funded by HBP or by FHWA. Our engineers are therefore with design capabilities for long, medium and short span bridges of composite construction or pre-stressed in high seismic or wind areas, whether pedestrian or highway or railway types.
PROJECT: DESIGN BUILT SUPPORT of the Segmental construction bridge, LAKHDARIA, ALGERIA
WIN Structural team was responsible for reviewing the calculations by the design-built contractor of the 200m cantilever carriage deck span system. The bridge was designed using the cantilever carriageway method of construction with continuous parabolic tendons of heavy pre-stressing cables. The team checked the construction sequencing and tensioning forces of the cables to ensure that during and after construction the deep box section of the bridge deck is not overstressed. The work included independent analysis and calculation of seismic effects during construction and before adding the closure span.
PROJECT: Blackhawk Drive, Bridges Seismic Retrofit, Danville, CA
The super span arch culvert is made of corrugated metal arch culvert with earth stabilized retaining walls at the approaches. WIN structural established health monitoring program for two years to monitor the concrete bridge walls movement and instability using advanced monitoring remote system. The work included complete rehabilitation for the 50ft span corrugated metal arch culvert, maintaining traffic open at all times using construction staging.
The work included drainage design and retrofit using post-tensioned tie rods to stabilize the bridge walls under traffic. The project included LRFR AASHTO evaluation of the bridge foundations and the steel metal arches for corrosion using AISC life time prediction method.
PROJECT: Schulte Road Bridge and Mountain House Parking, Vehicular Bridges replacement Over DLM, Tracy, CA
This road bridge crosses Delta Mendota Canal. The bridge is skewed in plan (about 26°) and has a total length of 158’ between abutments.
The project is HBP funded by CALTRANS and went through APS and conceptual design submitting PS&E to the City of Tracy which their original plan was to widen the existing bridge for additional traffic flow. As a result of APS, WIN got approval to design two new bridges – instead of 1 new bridge and a widening- with 170ft span precast pre-stressed girders, eliminating the intermediate pile bent.
The new design is Two precast pre-stressed, simply supported beams 140’ & 30’ft spans are stitched (spliced) together on site using post-tensioning to form one free span (simply supported over DLM) as required by USBWR, O&M guideline.
PROJECT: LRFR EVALUATION and LOAD RATING of (E) BRIDGES- California Aqueduct, Gustine, CA
WIN Structural Consulting team worked on the AASHTO LRFR rating of the 1981 existing concrete bridge. The rating of the bridge was triggered due to construction in the Gustine area by SUNPOWER and PG&E building new solar farm to produce electricity to Southern CA. The bridge is made of precast pre-stressed beam 72’-6”ft span (2lanes, 2 spans) supported on concrete abutment and intermediate pier spanning over the CA aqueduct. WIN team inspected the bridge conditions on site using NDT methods, collected as-built data and applied the LRFR analysis to evaluate the existing bridge superstructure and substructure elements in order to rate the bridge under current AASHTO legal design Loads and future possible construction and special permit loads.
PROJECT: Pedestrian Bridge; Hawaiian Grove Hotel and Shopping Center, Honolulu, HI
The Hawaiian Grove Bridge is linking 2 buildings of the shopping center and the plaza level of the Royal Hawaiian hotel. The bridge is made of steel metal concrete composite deck with curved steel beams and has architectural trellis on one side and balconies on the other side. The design included a complex study for the pedestrian vibration comfort level using advanced analysis, as well as, it consisted of the bridge connections design due to seismic movement of the buildings connected by the bridge.
PROJECT: McCabe Rd Bridge Rehabilitation, CALTRANS District 10, Merced, CA
The McCabe road bridge is 105ft long, 24ft wide and 28ft typical spans bridge over delta Mendota canal in Gustine, CA. The bridge is located West of Interstate5. The bridge is considered the only route to the Western side of Gustine with no alternate routes.
The site of the bridge was gaining critical interest due to the development of a 108MW solar farm by SunPower to generate electricity that will be sold to PG&E which built transmission towers to connect to the new solar farm. All above mentioned construction and crossing of heavy vehicles was mandating bridge condition assessment, LRFR load rating and seismic upgrade and retrofit.
Phase 1: Included the evaluation of the superstructure and substructure using AASHTO LRFR.
Phase2: Performing extensive testing and as-built condition assessment using NDT testing and under water diving team for checking of the substructure condition.
Phase 3: 3-D analytical bridge models to get seismic and wind loading stresses on elements.
Phase 4: Final design of the deck and design of the upgrades of all bridge components following CALTRANS and ASSHTO LRFD requirements with CA amendments.
Phase 5: Preparation of the structural specifications and bid selection support. Also, WIN provided project scheduling and construction cost estimate PS&E.
PROJECT: Romero Creek
The project is short span bridge crossing the Romero Creek in Gustine CA. The project entails the use of
Flat Rail Road Cars called FRRC as they exist in specific steel yards. The bridge is a new structure of approximately 48ft span and 25.5ft in width carrying 2 traffic lanes.
The bridge is rated and designed to carry HL93 trucks and Fire trucks only according to AASHTO LRFD.
Due to the fact we are limited by certain FRRC manufacturers, the existing FRRC will be cut to the bridge span length needed to cross the channel; based on the profile and on making use of the primary railcar steel sectional properties to sustain the design loads. Three railcars are joined together using connecting beam and supported by the abutments which are bent caps supported by drilled piers.
The seismic design is according to AASHTO LRFD using simplified coefficient method for short simply supported span length. The bridge is secured laterally using bumpers to prevent the beams or FRRC from walking or sliding away in the direction lateral and perpendicular to the bridge center line.