LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES ON RIGID BRIDGE ABUTMENTS

Current design practice of assessing lateral earth pressures on bridge abutments involves either the use of rule of thumb or classical earth pressure theories. This Paper presents a simple alternative earth pressure theory which makes some allowance for the effects of compaction. Several case histories are studied and a comparison made between observed pressure distributions and those derived using both current design methods and the alternative theory. The results indicate that conventional design methods render a gross underestimation of bending moments induced in rigid walls and abutments. Refs.