Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress - 2010

DESIGN AND EXECUTIVE CONTROL OF THREE CURVED BOX GIRDER BRIDGES IN S.PAULO

Daniel Berger, EGT Engenharia, So Paulo, BR Marcelo Waimberg, EGT Engenharia, So Paulo, BR Fernando Rebouas. Stucchi, EGT Engenharia, So Paulo, BR, (EPUSP)

ABSTRACT: The present paper deals with three Curved Box Girder Bridges, built in prestressed concrete, erected by the cantilever method, that compose the Road Interchange in the crossing of the Anhanguera Highway with the Marginal Tiet Avenue. The most important is branch 900, with two intermediate spans of 125m, two lateral spans of 90m and radius of curvature of 235m. Another bridge of the Complex, branch 200, has a side span built in single cantilever from a side support anchored in the rock. Beyond the description of geometry, the structure and the construction phases of these bridges, the paper intends to present the systematic of the deck level control, the load control on the temporary columns and stress control in some chosen sections of the girders. .

Key words: Curved Box Girder Bridge, Cantilever Method, Construction phases.

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

ANHANGUERA COMPLEX INTERCHANGE The Anhanguera complex consists of a set of constructions to improve the traffic at the arrival of Anhanguera Highway to So Paulo. It is located between the current bridge Atlio Fontana and the km 19 of Anhanguera, in Osasco. It will have new Viaducts, Bridges, u-turns, additional tracks, footbridges and other improvements. The project will facilitate the crossing of the river Tiet and access to the region of Lapa, Vila Leopoldina (Ceagesp) as well as neighborhoods such as the Mutinga quarter, thus improving the heavy traffic of over 100 thousand vehicles per day in Anhanguera and Marginal Tiet. The figure below shows the Anhanguera Complex and the branch 900, 500 and 200.

Fig. 1 The Anhanguera Interchange

The paper will focus on the Anhanguera Interchange bridges (branches 900, 500 and 200) with emphasis on the structural solution, the constructive aspects and monitoring.

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

BRANCH 900 DESIGN SOLUTION

The branch 900 bridge is the one with the largest span, 125m long. It has two 100m side spans and two 125m central spans. Its curvature radius is 235m which results in major torsion efforts. The figure below shows the branch 900.

Fig. 2 Branch 900

The bridge cross section is a one-cell box girder with variable height of 5.8m at internal piers and 2.95m at mid-span. The width of the deck is 11.80m. The bridge was built in a doublebalanced 61m cantilever. The figures below shows the cross section at mid-spam and piers.

Fig. 3 Cross Section Due to the large curvature of the bridge it would be impracticable to have two bearing devices on columns P1, P2 and P3 to restrict the torsional rotation. The huge transverse moments would generate important tension on the internal bearing devices. Its important to 2

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

remember that during the constructive phase, still in cantilever, external temporary columns would be under tension. Upon the cutting those columns there will be tension on the external bearing devices and during the creep effect tending to the continuous beam, there will be tension on the internal side. The figure below shows the curvature and the position of the piers P1, P2 and P3.

Fig. 4 Curvature of the bridge

To eliminate tension on internal and external bearing devices, the support has been defined with a single bearing instead of two. In addition, in order to reduce torsion on the deck, this device was placed eccentrically on the top of piers P2 and P3, at the internal side of the curve. The bearing positions are showed below.

Fig. 5 Bearing devices

MODEL CALCULATION The structure was calculated with a 3D frame model, including offsets between beams and columns, variable sections and soil-structure interaction. The effect of the eccentric bearing was studied to confirm the viability of the solution.

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Below you can see efforts of bending moments on the box girder with double support (fig.6), single-centered (fig.7) and eccentric support (fig.8) to compare the cases. The efforts of the three cases of bearing devices are calculated by load combination: Dead load (to) + Live load (45 ton truck + 0,5tf/m2)

Fig. 6 Bending moments in the model with double support.

Fig. 7 Bending moments in the model with single-centered support.

Fig. 8 Bending moments in the model with single-centered support on P1 and eccentric on P2 and P3. It is evident the convenience of the adopted solution. A specific study of the support diaphragm was developed in a hybrid model with bars in general and Finite Element shells in the region of the diaphragm. The diaphragms were dimensioned using strut and tie models. Confirming calculations, stresses obtained in the FEM were compared with strut and tie results. The comparison showed that applied models were appropriate. The figure of FEM model is showed below and the diaphragm geometry with prestressing tendon is showed in fig.10. 4

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Fig. 9 Model with finite elements shells connected with the original frame elements model.

Fig. 10 Diaphragm geometry with prestressing tendon. Diaphragm on P2 Principal stresses (tf/m2) Live Load+Dead Load+Prestressing (without the diaphragm tendon) in the figure below

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Fig. 11 Result FEM without diaphragm tendon

Diaphragm on P2 Principal stresses (tf/m2) Live Load+Dead Load+Prestressing (with the diaphragm tendon) in the figure below

Fig. 12 Result FEM with diaphragm tendon It can be observed that for service loads prestressing was sufficient to eliminate or reduce tension stresses to values below the concrete tensile strength. In the Ultimate Limit State, where the theory of reinforced concrete requires consideration of a strut and tie model, the suspension reinforcement required is much greater than those prestressing tendons1.

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

BRANCH 200 The branch 200 bridge is the one with the largest curvature, with a radius of 120m. Its spans are 54m and 90m long. This branch starts at the existing bridge, called Atlio Fontana. Due to interference with the bridge, a one-half span was built in single cantilever and the others in double cantilever. Single cantilever was erected in the 90m side span, rigidly fixing this pier to the rock. On the left of the figures below branch 200 under branches 500 and 900. On the right the cantilever of branch 200 during construction.

Fig. 13 Branch 200 (single cantilever)

Fixing in rock was made possible by means of 28 100tf 67mm anchorings for tension and 12 1.6m caissons for compression arising from efforts in this pier (N = 980tf, M = 19,869tfm). The figure below shows the foundation of the single cantilever.

Fig. 14 Extreme pier of the 90m span.

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

The cross section of the bridge is a one cell box girder with variable height of 4.85m at the central pier and 2.3m in the middle of the span. The width of the deck is 11.80 m.

CONSTRUCTION METHOD FOR BALANCED CANTILEVER The constructive method of balanced cantilever was first designed by Emlio Baumgart. The idea is to erect cast-in-place segments outwards from the piers, connecting them to the previously built structure. During erection of double cantilever, asymmetric loads tend to unbalance the structure. To ensure stability, temporary columns may be used, as for the bridges mentioned here, or cantilever can be rigidly fixed at piers. For double cantilevers of branches 900, 500 and 200 provisional monitored columns were adopted. For branch 200 simple cantilever the superstructure was fixed to the pier, which was anchored in rock.

Constructive sequence: 1) Erection of bridge columns and temporary columns 2) First segment cast on falsework support 3) Assembly of form traveler 4) Balanced cantilever (formwork, reinforcement, concrete, prestressing and advancing of form travelers in a one week cycle) 5) Cast of falsework supported girder segment 6) Conclusion of balanced segments 7) Moving form traveler for closure casting 8) Casting of closures and prestressing of positive tendons 9) Temporary columns demolition 10) Execution of pavement and casting of New Jersey barriers.

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Fig. 15 Constructive Sequence BRIDGE MONITORING: Bridge monitoring allows to follow and ensure quality throughout the course of the Bridge construction. The results of each phase are compared with design values to check their consistency or anomalies in the process. In case of defects, they can be repaired immediately without affects job performance. Monitoring System provides safer constructive process, since it allows knowing how are the main elements of the Work in each construction phase. The Monitoring System consists of three elements listed below: A) B) C) Monitoring of balanced cantilever levels. Monitoring of temporary columns strain Monitoring of balanced segments strain. 9

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Monitoring of balanced cantilever levels: At each construction stage (after casting a segment, prestressing it or advancing the form traveler) measurement of levels are conduct. These levels were always compared with the theoretical values and if necessary the model was back-analyzed according to data. Those levels were always measured early in the morning in order to minimize the effects of temperature variation in the concrete. The figure below shows the points to take the measurement of levels. All the segments had a certain point to each measurement level.

Fig.16 Points to take the level for each segment.

The location of the next segment was always made in relation to the previous one through a construction camber, with relative elevations, never absolute values. That camber represents the misalignment of the new segment considering the previous one and the figure below shows this misalignment.

10

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Fig. 17 Construction camber For computing the construction camber it was used the scheme suggested by Mativat. With estimated vertical displacements, the bridge profile can be obtained as if segments were cast in alignment. With camber adjustments, a new profile results at the specified position. The figure below shows this position during the construction.

Fig. 18 Geometric place of cantilever extremes construction camber.

Fig. 19 Theoretical profile for Branch 900 on pier P3 during construction phase. 11

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Monitoring of temporary columns strain: The decision of monitoring these columns was made especially to bring safer condition to the step of cutting, since they are elements of vital importance during the construction phase. We chose measuring strain and indirectly estimating the forces acting on those columns for a much more economical usage of strain-gauges instead of load cells. The strain-gauges were put in bars and showed on figure 21. The bars with the strain-gauges were put in the piers and show on figure 20.

Fig.20 Strain-gauge on the bars

Fig.21 Strain-gauge on the Piers Columns strains were read and compared with the back-analyzed theoretical design values. Since measured and computed strains were consistent and close, we can conclude that the theoretical forces in temporary columns must also be close to actual values. The figures below shows the comparison with the specific deformation of theoretical and measured strains in one pier of branch 900 temporary columns. 12

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

Fig. 22 Theoretical and measured strains in one pier of branch 900 temporary columns.

Monitoring of strains of segments: Strains were measured in critical sections of the segments. They were measured at the four corners of the cross section as stated below. The strain-gauge were put on the bars and showed on the figure 20.

Fig. 23 Positioning of the strain-gauges Those strain measurements were compared with the theoretical values in some of the construction phases in order to control the process. The Monitoring System has led to a safer construction process, as it made possible to follow the main elements of the Work in each construction phase.

13

Berger, Waimberg, Stucchi

3rd fib International Congress -2010

CONCLUSIONS Branches 200, 500 and 900 were already constructed. The constructive method and Monitoring System enabled to meet the expected execution deadline. The final level were well closed to the project level. With the Monitoring of temporary columns and segments and the control of the levels allowed to verify whether the constructive phase was in good condition like the expected.

REFERENCES 1. Leonhardt, Frtiz and Monnig, Eduardo, Construes de Concreto, V.3, 1979 2. Mathivat, Jacques, The Cantilever Construction of Presstressed Concrete Bridge, 1983.

14