CONCRETE CREEP EFFECTS DURING BRIDGE SPAN CONSTRUCTION USING CANTILEVER CONCRETING TECHNOLOGY

A characteristic feature of many long-span cantilever prestressed concrete bridges are excessive deflections of their spans due to the rheological processes in the concrete and in the prestressing steel. Such bridges are subject to monitoring during which geodetic surveys are usually conducted. The latter reveal changes in the deflection curves of the spans. In this paper span displacements resulting from concrete creep are analysed. A specific situation occurring when the span static scheme is changed from the cantilever (assembly stage) to continuous beam (exploitation stage) is considered. Assuming a regular three-span structure, a general solution to the problem is obtained for the following bridge parameters: dead load, span length, and the variable concrete creep index. The proposed algorithm is used in calculation examples in which different creep index distributions along the cantilevers are assumed. The results of the analyses are compared with the behaviour of a monitored existing bridge of this type. The analyses presented in this paper can be useful for the design of spans and the assessment of the safety of such bridges which are in service.