Assessment and strengthening of reinforced concrete bridges with half-joint deterioration
Existing Niagara-type concrete cantilever bridges, which in Italy are called Gerber bridges, suffer from degradation due to reinforcement corrosion and a consequent reduced load-bearing capacity. The assessment of these structures is therefore an important part of the procedures for analyzing the state of existing bridges and any interventions required for their retrofitting. In particular, safety against failure of the half-joint must be evaluated with respect to the behavior of the entire bridge and its state of conservation, determining what the conditions are that lead to failure, in terms of loads, state of stress, and possibly cracking state. This evaluation has to be carried out cons…
Performance of a historical cantilever reinforced concrete bridge with half-joint degradation
The lack of maintenance of roadway concrete bridges built from the Second World War until the 70 s of the 20th century has led in recent years to an ever-increasing request for safety assessments. When bridge performance in terms of Serviceability Limit State (SLS) and Ultimate Limit State (ULS) has to be evaluated, in-situ visual inspections and load tests for safety and maintenance assessment have to be coupled with structural analysis. In order to identify a sound bridge structural model and to assess the actual conservation state, more refined models than those usually considered for section and reinforcement design should be used to reproduce the results of load tests and perform globa…