Rehabilitation of Historic Railway Masonry Arch

Bridge: A Case Study

DOI 10.1515/rbm-2015-1002
Abstract: This research outlines a case study for the structural rehabilitation of
a historic masonry arch bridge. The
major part of the railway bridge was destroyed due to high
flood. The remaining parts were evaluated from structural
point of view. A detailed investigation for the historic and
current state of the bridge was performed. A precise
description for the structural system, main elements,
method of construction, materials used, and internal component was done. Also, 3D
finite element analysis was
conducted for the proposed rehabilitated bridge in order
to identify the level of internal stresses in different structural components of
the arch bridge under the effect of
dead loads, live loads, wind loads, seismic loads, water
flow rate, and temperature changes. The results of the
finite element modeling together with the structural studies
and investigations were used to develop structural guidelines for the
rehabilitation project taking into account the
proposed new usage as a historic walkway and the hydrological requirements as a
structure over flood flow channel.
Keywords: rehabilitation, masonry, arch bridge
1 Introduction
Masonry arch bridges have been utilized for thousands of
years as roadways, river and stream crossings. The historic
masonry arch bridge located at Al-Aqeeq valley flood flow
channel is considered as one of the famous features of AlMedina city, Saudi Arabia.
It was constructed during the
execution of Al-Hejaz railway project in the reign of the
Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hameed the second. The railway
reached Al-Medina on September 1, 1908. During the
World War I, the line was repeatedly damaged and closed.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1920 the railway
didn’t reopen south of the Jordanian-Saudi Arabian border. Since the masonry arch
bridge was crossing a high
flood flow channel and the size of original arched vents
was small, as shown Figure 1(a), relative to water flood
flow rate in high seasons of flood, openings in the strip
foundation between pillars were made in early years to
increase vent size and avoid water barring in front of the
bridge, as shown in Figure 1(b). This may be considered as
the main cause of bridge damage since those openings
weaken the bridge foundation and caused damage for
some arch bays during repeated floods. The bridge has
been badly affected during the flood of 1999, as shown in
Figure 1(c). The remaining standing portion of the bridge
has been scoured and is likely to fall down during any new
high flood, as shown in Figure 1(d). Therefore, in 2005, it
was decided that the portion of the bridge which is still
standing in the designed width of the flood flow channel
should be removed. In 2007, the state governorate decided
to start performing integral studies for the restoration and
rehabilitation of the railway bridge as a historic structure
and should to be conserved. The rehabilitated bridge
should satisfy the requirements of the width and the bed
level of the designed flood flow channel. Accordingly, a
structural study was performed.
The Guidelines for historic bridge rehabilitation and
replacement requested by the American Association of
State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
and conducted as part of the National Cooperative
Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 25-25/Task
19, March 2007, presents a literature search, findings of a
survey on the current state of historic bridge rehabilitation
or replacement decision making by state and local transportation agencies, and
nationally applicable decisionmaking guidelines for historic bridges. The
guidelines are
intended to be used as the protocol for defining when
rehabilitation of historic bridges can be considered prudent and feasible and when
it is not based on engineering
and environmental data and judgments. The guidelines
include identification of various approaches to bring historic bridges into
conformance with current design and
safety guidelines and standards, and the effect or implications of remedial action
on historical significance.
From the structural point of view, the structural analysis methods proposed for
masonry arches until the
second half of last century were essentially based on
the techniques of graphic statics and on the principle of
structural mechanics developed at that time, and it is
likely that many arch bridges were designed by those
methods [1]. The need of rehabilitation and conservation
*Corresponding author: S. K. Elwan, Department of Civil
Engineering, The Higher Institute of Engineering, El Sherouk City,
Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: elwan_68@hotmail.com
Restoration of Buildings and Monuments 2015; 21(4-6): 107–117
Unauthenticated
Download Date | 5/31/16 12:57 AMof masonry structures has shown in recent years a
lack of
reliable methods for assessing masonry arch bridges
[2, 3]. In fact, it is important not only to maintain ancient
structures in good conditions, but also, when necessary,
to be able to estimate their safety factor as accurately as
possible [4, 5]. The theoretical modeling of arch bridges
considers two main different approaches: a two-dimensional one, based on pre-
elastic theories [6, 7], and the
three-dimensional Finite Element Method approach. The
former is based on a classical ‘limit’ analysis, after
Heyman, who developed the method at the end of sixties
[8, 9] starting from the nineteenth century treatises. As a
result of recent studies in structural mechanics, the latter
has shown a great flexibility and a wide range of application fields [10, 11]. The
recent development of the method
has induced a perhaps excessive trust in the numerical
tools of structural analysis, even if the F.E.M. can be
usefully employed for the analysis of masonry arches [12].
This paper presents complete structural studies
including the results of a F.E.M. analysis, performed
involving linear material behaviour, for a stone masonry
arch bridge. The numerical analysis can give a 3-dimensional map of the stress and
strain distribution.
2 Structural characteristics
of the original bridge
The railway bridge consists of a group of basalt stone half
circle arches with 3.00 m radius. The arches are supported on stone piers with 1.12
m wall thickness. The
stone basalt blocks are with 400 mm thickness. Arches
with piers are considered as the main structural elements
supporting the railway bridge with 3.2 m width consisting
of two outer stone walls with 40 cm thickness supporting
backfill layer inside the bridge. The foundation system of
the bridge was continuous strip footing with thickness
equal 800 mm constructed with rough rubble stones
fixed to each other with pozzolanic mortar. The complete
structural characteristics of the original masonry arch
bridge are shown in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 3, the