1st Bridge Owners' Forum
King's College, Cambridge
21st November 2000
9:30 - 10:00 Arrival - Tea and Coffee (Beves Room)
10:00 - 10:10 Introduction
Current research projects and interests:
10:10 - 11:30 Session 1:
Presentations:
Discussion
11:30 - 11:45 Morning Tea
11:45 - 1:00 Session 2:
Presentations:
Discussion
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch: The Saltmarsh Rooms, King's College
Future research and key areas of interest:
2:00 - 3:20 Session 3:
Presentations:
Discussion
3:20 - 3:35 Afternoon Tea
3:35 - 4:50 Session 4:
Presentations:
Discussion
4:50 - 5:00 Any other business
Date of next forum
Summing up
5:30 - 6:30 Evensong at King's College Chapel
(All delegates are welcome to attend this service which is open to the public. King's College Choir will be singing.)
This work is part of a LINK project funded by the DETR and Industrial Partners researching the effectiveness of retrofitted reinforcement in strengthening masonry arch bridges suffering from ring separation.
The two year testing programme has recently been completed with the production of the final project report. It has been demonstrated that retrofitted reinforcement strengthening can restore the ultimate capacity of ring separated masonry arches to a level which can exceed the ultimate capacity of an equivalent "defect free" masonry arch with a barrel condition factor of unity.
However several points of interest, particularly to bridge owners, have been raised which relate to the following topics:
These will form the basis for discussion by bridge owners and to determine if further research in these areas should be undertaken.
In July 1997 the Engineering and Physical Research Council made a grant of approx. £200,000 to Cardiff University to study the parameters which influence the strength of masonry arch bridges.
The testing phase is now complete with a total of 30 No. 1/12th Scale model masonry arch bridges have been loaded within a centrifuge machine.
Parameters modelled include the following:
Such a large number of tests has generated a vast amount of comprehensive test data which will be subject to an extensive in-depth analysis over the next 12 months.
However, Cardiff University have put all the test data on the internet web site http://www.cf.ac.uk/engin/research/concmas/pb2_1.html and this can be reviewed at your own convenience.
British Waterways are one of the many industrial organisations providing both financial and staff resources in assisting Mr Stephen Bright in undertaking a PhD research project into movable bridges.
Stephen has completed the first year and generated a comprehensive desk study into moving bridges on a world wide basis which has produced an impressive bibliography of reference books and professional papers. His database comprises all movable bridge owners throughout the UK including number and type of movable bridge, with principle dimensions and materials.
From his background researches the University has agreed his thesis should concentrate on the optimisation of the next generation of orthotropic bridge decks.
A field trial of ECE was carried out by Dr Abid Abutair (University of Ulster) on a heavily contaminated bank seat of the M1 River Bann Bridge in Craigavon in 1997. The bridge was constructed in the late 1960's.
Evaluation of the desalination process required the use of a unique programme based on the University of Ulsters porewater extraction technique.
The analysis of the porewater provides the most useful and indepth analysis of the prior and post treatment chemical status of the concrete.
While ECE is a well known technique this demonstration proved successful at this site in reducing chlorides to levels that would ensure that reinforcement corrosion ceased with the novel porewater extraction technique being the main feature for monitoring purposes in the study.
This structure was built in 1958 and demolished in 1997 due to the construction of the Belfast Cross Harbour Bridge scheme.
As prestressed concrete structures are known to undergo time dependent changes due to loss of prestress and possible deterioration of the concrete demolition of the structure offered an opportunity to measure how the bridge beams had performed over their 40 year life and to compare this performance with that predicted.
Dr David Sloan (Queens University, Belfast) carried out tests on precast prestressed concrete beams selected for this study.
In summary:
Around 100 projects including call-off advice.
Budget : Approx 2m.
HA Website http://www.highways.gov.uk/
Compendium of Highways Agency Research (1994 1999)
Forward look programme of R & D projects planned in a particular financial year.
No online abstract for reasons of confidentiality.
The development of a new bridge acquisition and maintenance policy will be described with reference to Departmental Objectives, a new definition of Asset, the requirements of Resource Accounting and Budgeting and lessons already learnt from experience of the Assessment and Strengthening Programme.