Project Information
Link to Latest Report: December 2019 Progress Report
Final Report Coming Soon
Background:
ABC is especially beneficial for short-span bridges that are more receptive of standardized prefabricated elements. In most such cases, the entire span of the bridge can be covered using prefabricated deck elements, modular decks, or systems encompassing the entire bridge width. Furthermore, the substructures in these bridges could avoid special treatment and can be accommodated by prefabricated elements. For shorter spans, prefabrication of the entire bridge consisting of substructure and superstructure is also an option. Various construction methods ranging from installation using customary cranes to the use of Self-Propelled Modular Transport (SPMT) units for moving the entire superstructure, or the use of slide-in methods can be employed for construction of the short span ABC bridges. There are various definitions as what span length constitutes short span. Some define bridges with a span of 20-45 ft. as short-span (FDOT), others span of up to 70 ft., and some attribute spans as long as 100 ft. The proposed course module will introduce the ABC concept, and review its applications to short-span bridge construction. It will categorize and describe short-span bridges based on various factors such as access, topographic and geographic conditions, roadway functional category, span length, elements and systems, time constraints, and construction methods. Design and detailing of the bridge and joints will also be discussed in the course. Performance of these bridges will be reviewed based on the information available in the literature. Decision-making on the use of ABC in general and type of elements, systems, and construction method will be briefly discussed in this course. Further, the course will cover new and ongoing developments that can affect the future of ABC for short-span bridges. Inspection of short-span bridges will also be one of topics discussed in this course.
Objective:
The primary objective of development of this course is to provide a general knowledge about the application of ABC for short-span bridges covering various aspects of decision-making, construction methods, available elements and systems, performance and inspection, design, detailing and connections.
Scope:
An overview of the study tasks is given below.
- Task 1 – Literature review
- Literature on application of ABC to short-span bridges will be reviewed to gather information needed to construct the course.
- Task 2 – Develop the outline of the course
- Based on the results of the literature search, an outline for the modules will be prepared and shared with research advisory panel for their comments.
- Task 3 – Develop course modules
- The course modules will be developed based on the outline in previous task and comments received. The format of the course material will be in PowerPoint presentation. Each module will be also video recorded from the PowerPoint presentations.
- Task 4 – Conducting a trial course for FDOT
- FDOT will be contacted to possibly arrange a trial course in their offices or online. Alternatively, the course can be presented in an ABC webinar format online.
Research Team
Principal Investigator: Dr. Armin Mehrabi
Research Assistant: Ana Torrealba Sotillo
Previous Progress Reports