STRENGTH VERIFICATION AND COMPARISON FOR RESTORATION DESIGN OF A 60-YEAR-OLD BRIDGE

Abstract

 This report is based on a girder bridge constructed about 60 years ago and already dismantled. The bearing capacity of the 60-year-old piers that three engineers made the restoration design was investigated. The results showed that, depending on the design results, the yield capacity of the piers with the restored design may be estimated to be higher than that of the piers with the reinforcement revealed at the time of dismantlement. On the other hand, it was found that if the restoration design was performed with reasonable reinforcement quantity and reinforcement arrangement, even if the reinforcement arrangement was slightly different from that of the actual structure, it was unlikely to have a significant impact on the evaluation of the seismic performance of the existing piers.