2024 Volume 80 Issue 28 Article ID: 23-28006
Pedestrian bridges over mountainous areas in Akita Prefecture are in danger of falling because of heavy snow load during winter. The most trivial approach to prevent such snow trouble is increase stiffness of the bridges, while the approach is not so efficient for season-depending load increase. In this study we propose deck-openable timber bridge, whose deck is openable so that the opening can make snow fall down for winter period. In order to estimate the snow reduction performance of the deck-openable bridge, we carried out outdoor exposure test in one of the heaviest snowfall areas in Akita Prefecture.
As a result, the snow load was reduced by 50% compared to the case of the deck-closed form of the deck-openable bridge.
