Bridge Design Lecture Note

Chapter 2
INVESTIGATION FOR BRIDGES
2.1. Introduction

The aim of the investigation is to select a suitable site from possible alternatives at which a
bridge can be built economically, at the same time satisfying the demands of safety, traffic,
the stream, and aesthetics. In this first stage of design the engineer identifies a preferred
location for the bridge and decides on the type, size and capacity of the structure. He/she
reaches these decisions on the basis of field surveys and information concerning:

 The proposed road alignment

 The local terrain and site conditions
 The required design life of the bridge
 The likely traffic volume
 The resources available for the project

The local terrain and site conditions dictate the height, length and number of spans, and the
design of the substructure foundations. The required design life and the resources available
to construct the bridge will influence the choice of materials and construction methods. The
traffic predictions enable the engineer to determine the necessary width of the bridge.

The investigation for a major bridge project should cover studies on technical feasibility and
economic considerations and should result in an investigation report. The success of the final
design will depend on the thoroughness of the information furnished by the officer in charge
of the investigation.

The objectives in this chapter are to select a bridge site, determine the total span at the
selected site and the span sub divisions, and to discuss about site investigations required for
detailed bridge design.

2.2. Site Selection

2.2.1 Preliminary Survey

The objective of the preliminary survey is to study more than one alternative bridge sites.
Usually the road plans are not prepared with contours at this early stage, which make it
necessary to use the topographic maps available in the country. Possible bridge sites are first
located on topographic maps. The Ethiopian Mapping Authority has prepared maps to scale
of 1:250,000 for the whole country. In addition there are also maps to scale of 1:50,000
available for large areas of the country shown in the current “Map Catalogue” published by
the Ethiopian Mapping Agency. These are especially suited for the planning stage to
calculate catchment areas, possible provisional road alignments, aggregate quarries, and other
uses. After locating the possible bridge sites on these maps, these sites are visited to collect
certain preliminary data required for thorough examination of alternative bridge sites from
which the final site shall be selected.

1
Bridge Design Lecture Note
2.2.2. Selection of Bridge Site
For the bridge engineer, rivers are the most common obstructions needing to be bridged.
Occasionally the engineer may be called upon to design a rail or road grade separated
crossings. These are relatively simple compared to river crossings because they involve
considerations only of height and span. The design of a river crossing has to also take
hydraulic requirements into account.

There are three initial considerations to bear in mind in selection of the site:
 a bridge site must offer appropriate vertical and horizontal alignments (skew angle
above 200 should be avoided due to increased bridge costs).
 its soils must be of sufficient strength to ensure the stability of the structure (the site
selection should if possible be made together with a soils engineer to minimize costs
and select the best site).
 the bridge and its associated works should not have an adverse impact on adjoining
land or buildings, or be susceptible to damage from/to the local environment.
For a river crossing it is important to identify the type of river to be crossed. There are two
types of rivers namely alluvial and incised.
Alluvial rivers are winding and they erode their banks and scour their beds; they have flood
plains on either side of the channel and the flow regularly overtops the channel banks to
spread across the flood plain. They are continually active, scouring and depositing materials
on the banks and transporting quantities of sediment. The main channels and any of the
minor channels can change position and islands can disappear in the course of a single major
flood.
Incised rivers have relatively stable banks and are generally narrower and deeper than
alluvial rivers. Some overtop their banks during flood, but the flow returns to the existing
channel when the flood subsides.

2
Bridge Design Lecture Note

Steeply graded tributary streams flowing into a major river commonly exhibit abrupt changes
in channel width and bed gradient where they enter the main flood plain. These changes
result in the deposition of large quantities of sediment in the form of alluvial fans of gravel to
clay sized debris.
There is a wide range of sites for bridges in rural areas but the choice may be limited in urban
areas and for Passovers.
An ideal site for bridge crossing is one that:
 is on a straight reach of the river. If the river is meandering the best crossing site will
be at the nodal points of the course, which are not affected by the meandering.
 where the flow is steady without serious whirls and cross currents
 is beyond the disturbing influence of large tributaries
 has well defined and stable high banks above flood level
 has uniform flow i.e. larger average depth compared to localized maximum depth
 has reasonable straight approach roads and permits as a square a crossing as possible.
Curves should be avoided in the immediate approaches to the bridge. Skew crossing
may be acceptable if curved approach is required for square crossing. The approaches
should also be economical (not very high or long) and not liable to flank attack of the
river during floods.
 has good foundation conditions
 has short span (narrow channel)
 does not require expensive river training work
 does not require excessive underwater construction

A bridge aligned at right angles to the river results in the shortest superstructure. A skewed
bridge requires more material and is more complicated to design and construct. If a skew is
unavoidable, the angle should preferably not exceed 200 due to the increased cost.

Bridge crossings over alluvial rivers nearly always require training works to stabilize the
channel flow within the bridge waterway opening.

The location of the bridge in relation to the alignment of the approaches may be decided as
below.
a) Total span <60m-The alignment of the approaches will govern.
b) 60m<Total span < 300m-Both the alignment and good bridge site govern.
c) Total span>300m-Good bridge site governs.

Selection of a suitable bridge site especially for major bridges is teamwork consisting of
highway engineer, bridge engineer, geologist and hydraulic engineer.

If all the requirements cannot be satisfied there may be some compromise for the less
important sites.

It is most common that two to five different alignments are compared and evaluated from
technical, economical, environmental, and other perspectives, to select the most beneficial
alignment(s). This may be performed either by hand or by a computer program. The
preliminary cost of the bridges may be calculated by unit cost per m2 of bridge deck.

3
Bridge Design Lecture Note
Several computer programs are available. An example is a computer program developed in
1993-98 by the Overseas Centre of Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Berkshire,
United Kingdom is “RTIM3-Road Transport Investment Model”, which is widely used to
carry out cost- benefit analysis on road construction, upgrading and maintenance projects in
developing countries. The program runs on a microcomputer and operates as a series of
linked compiled spreadsheets for traffic flow, road deterioration, and vehicle operating costs
and economic analysis.

2.3. Site Investigation

Once the engineer has identified a likely site for the bridge, he/she needs to obtain field
information on the catchment area and run off, local terrain, river conditions and water levels,
navigational (only for river Baro) and other clearance requirements, and soil information.
Field reviews shall be made by the designer in order to become familiar with the site. The
most complete survey data cannot adequately depict all site conditions or substitute for
personal inspection by someone experienced in bridge design.

There are several criteria that should be established before making the field visit. Does the
magnitude of the project warrant an inspection, or can the same information be obtained from
maps, aerial photos, or by telephone calls? What kind of equipment should be taken and
most important, what exactly are the critical items at the site under consideration?

Factors that most often need to be confirmed by field inspection (see Form 4.1) are

 High-water marks or profiles and related frequencies.

 Selection of roughness coefficients,
 Evaluation of apparent flow direction and diversions,
 Flow concentration (main stream),
 Observation of land use and related flood hazards, and
 Geomorphic relationships and soil conditions

An actual visit to the site where the project will be constructed shall be made before any
design is undertaken. This may be combined with a visit by others, such as the roadway
designers and soil investigators, environmental reviewers, and local officials. The designer
may visit the site separately, however, because of interests which are different from the
others, and the time required to obtain the data as warranted below.

It may not be possible to survey the entire watershed, therefore a sample area may have to be
studied.

2.3.1 Catchment Area and Run off Data

Flow volumes to be considered for the bridge design are function of the catchment
characteristics ,which are used to estimate flow volumes. Using maps or aerial photographs
to an appropriate scale, the catchment area can be marked and its size calculated, using
transparent squared graph paper or a planimeter. If soft copy of the topographic map is
available, the area can easily be calculated from this file.

4
Bridge Design Lecture Note
The information which is of interest are: catchment size, catchment grade, catchment cover,
presence of any artificial or natural storage such as dams, lakes etc., possibility of any
change in the nature of the catchment due to forestation or deforestation, maximum
recorded intensity and frequency of rainfall in the catchment.

2.3.2 Drawings

a) Index Map – showing the proposed location of the bridge, the alternative bridge sites
investigated and rejected, towns and villages in the vicinity and the general topographic
of the area. Scale may be 1:50,000.

b) Contour Survey Plan of the river showing all topographic feature for a sufficient
distance on either side of the site to give indication of the features, which would
influence the location, and the design of the bridge and its approaches. Distances to be
coveted by contour plans are shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Distance to be covered by contour plans

Catchment area (Sq.Km) Upstream Downstream
Up to 2.5 150m 150m
2.5 0 10.0 200 – 400m 150m
Over 10.0 400 – 500m 250m

c) Site plan – showing the details of the selected site and of the stream to a distance of 100
to 200m upstream and downstream of the selected site. This should show the crossing
point and alignment of approaches, location and reduced level of benchmark, location of
cross section and longitudinal sections of road and stream taken within area of the plan,
and location of buildings, rock outcrops and other possible obstructions to the road
alignment.

d) Cross-section and longitudinal sections of the river – Cross-sections are taken at

suitable distances both upstream and downstream of the proposed bridge site. These
should indicate the distance from the centerline of the bridge and also the HFL,
OFL,LWL and the bed levels at suitable intervals along the centerline of the deep water
channel.
e) Catchment area map – is prepared by tracing the ridge line of the water shed on the
topographic map of the area.

2.3.3. River Survey

Information required by the designer for analysis and design include not only the physical
characteristics of the land and channel, but all features that can affect the magnitude and
frequency of the flood flow which will pass at the site under study. These data may include
climatological characteristics, land runoff characteristics, and stream gauging records, high
water marks and the sizes and past performances of existing structures in the vicinity. The
exact data required will depend upon the methods utilized to estimate discharges, and
frequencies.

5
Bridge Design Lecture Note

The collection of flood data is a basic survey task in performing any hydraulic analysis. The
field collection will consist mainly of interviews with local people, maintenance personnel,
and local officials who may have recollection of past flood events in the area. In some cases,
if a stream gauging station is on the stream under study close to the crossing site and has
many years of measurements, this may be the only hydrologic data needed. These data
should be analyzed to ensure that stream flows have not changed over the time of
measurement due to watershed alterations such as the construction of a large storage facility,
diversion of flow to another watershed, addition of flow from another watershed, or
development which has significantly altered the runoff characteristics of the watershed.

High-water marks are often the only data of past floods available. When collected, these data
should include, when possible, the date and elevation of the flood event. In the search for
marks, local people could be of great help. The cause of the high water mark should also be
noted, often the mark is caused by unusual debris build up rather than an inadequate
structure, and designing roadway or structure to such an elevation could lead to an
unrealistically uneconomical design. High water marks can be identified in several ways.
Small debris, such as grass or twigs caught in tree branches, elephant grass or similar matted
down, mud lines on stones or bridges, are all high water indicators. Beware however that
grass, bushes, and tree branches could be bent over during flood flows and spring up after the
flow has passed, which may give a false reading of the high water elevation.

The hydrologic characteristics of the basin or watershed of the stream under study are needed
for any predictive methods used to forecast flood flows. Although many of these
characteristics can be found from office studies, some are better found by a field survey of
the basin. The size and configuration of the watershed, the geometry of the stream network,
storage, volumes of ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and flood plains, and the general geology and
soils of the basin can be found from maps.

Having determined these basin characteristics, runoff times, infiltration values, storage
values, and runoff coefficients can be found and used in calculating flood flow values using
different methods outlined in Equations 2.1 to 2.4.

Rainfall records are available from the Ethiopian Meteorological Services Agency (Weather
Bureau). This data should be used to supplement, update, and refine the data developed and
presented in Drainage Design Manual prepared by Ethiopia Roads Authority.

Once the best site is selected, information is needed on the highest known flood level, the
ordinary flood level and the low water level at the proposed site. The design discharge also
needs to be determined.

The normal high water level, Ordinary Flood Level (OFL) – is the level to which the river
normally rises during the wettest season of the year.

The normal low water level, the Low Water Level (LWL) – is the level prevailing in the river
during dry weather. If there is little or no flow in dry weather, the period during which the
riverbed remains dry should be noted.

Highest know Flood Level(HFL) – is the highest level that the river is known to rise to

6
Bridge Design Lecture Note
The bridge engineer is required to select Design Flood Level (DFL), design discharge and
design velocity on which to base calculations of waterway geometry, foundation depth, scour
protection and vertical clearance.

The design flood is the maximum flow that can pass through the bridge without
 Causing unacceptable disruption to traffic
 Endangering the pier and abutment foundations with scours
 Damaging approach embankments
 Causing flood damage on the upstream side of embankments

On important roads the bridge may be designed for a design flood occurring no more than
once every ten years and a high flood occurring once every hundred years(Refer drainage
manual for recent ERA recommendations)

A minor road may be served by bridges or low water crossings designed to be overtopped for
a few days every year.

In Ethiopia, hydraulic records are not available for most of the rivers and the DFL is taken as
the High Water Mark (HWM) which is obtained from silt marks left on banks or twigs left
adhering to nearby trees supplemented by inquires of people residing nearby the nriver at the
proposed bridge site.

The high flood is the rarely occurring flow that it is uneconomical to include in the design
flood, but which may be considered when stress designing the superstructure and piers of the
bridge.
The maximum discharge may be determined by the following methods

Empirical Formula

Q=C*An, Q=C*A Ryve’s formula …. (2.1)

Rational Formula
Q=C*1*A . . . (2.2)

Area-Velocity Method
Q=V*A . . . (2.3)

Unit Hydrograph

From any available records of the flood discharge at the bridge site or at any other site in the
vicinity

The design discharge may be taken as the maximum value obtained from at least two of the
methods mentioned.

2.3.4. Soil Investigation

Soil investigation is required to get soil profile, engineering property of the foundation
material and foundation level for the abutments and piers for design of the foundations. This

7
Bridge Design Lecture Note
information is obtained by analyzing samples taken from boreholes, test pits or geophysical
surveying.

It is important to sample for soil, rock, stone, water, etc in co-operation with the soil
investigators. Samples of at least 2 kg each should be collected marking the station number
where they are collected.

In the preliminary survey state, the soil investigation could be very brief, since the final
alignment of the roadway is not yet decided. The most probable location should be
investigated to get a general view of the soil conditions.

If the conditions are complex or if there is only one possible bridge site, and for the selected
final bridge site, the investigations will be made thoroughly. This work should be made
under the guidance of a geotechnical engineer.

In has proved very practical to make a simple sketch of the bridge site with approximate
water shores, existing structures, scour holes, main stream location, etc including very rough
dimensions with approximate measurements.

As a minimum, photos shall be taken looking up stream, and downstream from the site as
well as along the contemplated highway centerline in both directions. Details of the
streambed and banks should also be photographed along with any existing structures in the
vicinity both upstream and downstream. Close-up photographs complete with a scale or grid
shall be taken to facilitate estimates of the stream bed gradation.

2.4. Span Determination

2.4.1 Economical Span

For a given lineal waterway the total cost of the superstructure increase and the total cost of
the substructure decrease with increase in span. The most economical span length is that for
which the cost of superstructure equals the cost of substructure, the point at which the total
cost is a minimum.

2.4.2 Hydraulic Requirements

Bridges are designed to accommodate design discharge at design flood. When a bridge
structure and its associated embankments encroach upon the flow of the river in flood, there
is a risk to the structure, the embankments and the surrounding land. It is not economical,
however, to build a bridge to clear a wide flood plain. So lineal waterway that passes the
design discharge should be provided (plus free board) and the bridge be stress designed for
the high flood.

When a river has a wide flood plain, the economical solution may be using short span bridge
with proper scour and erosion protection for the embankments, abutments and piers.

2.4.3 Location of Piers

Piers should be located in such a manner that they can provide the required lineal waterway
and navigational clearance. They should be located to cause a minimum of obstruction to the
8
Bridge Design Lecture Note
flow. Piers should not be located in the river if there is boulder transport during flood. The
most economical spans should be adopted as far as possible. Piers and abutments should also
be located to make the best use of the foundation conditions available. If navigational or
aesthetic requirements dictate, the spans may be suitably modified.

The alignment of piers and abutments should, if possible, be set parallel to the direction of
flow during maximum flood even for skewed and curved bridges, which may not be the same
as during normal flow.

Bridge crossings over alluvial rivers nearly always require training works to stabilize the flow
within the bridge water way opening.

2.4.4 Free Board

The waterway below the superstructure must be designed to pass the design flood and the
floating debris carried on it. This should apply even after several years of sedimentation.
The free board allows for uncertainty in determining DFL also. The minimum free board

above the design water level is given in table below unless a refined hydraulic have been
made.

Table 2.2 Free Bard

Discharge(m3/s) Free Board(m)
0-3 0.3
3-30 0.6
30-300 0.9
>300 1.2

These clearance measurements should be increased for backwater effects when the flow is
restricted by short span bridge or when the river has a history of unusual large floating items
or in the case of the Baro River for navigational requirements. For arched structures the
clearance will be measured at quarter points of the span. The minimum clearance above
roadways shall be at least 5.1m. Light superstructures (timber, steel trusses, steel girders, etc)
will have a minimum clearance height of 5.3m above roadways.

Underpasses for pedestrian and bicycles should not be less than 2.4m. For cattle and wildlife
underpasses should be designed as the normal height of the actual kind of animal plus 0.5m
and for horse riding, the clear height should not be less than 3.4m. Bridges above railways
shall have a clearance height of at least 6.1m if not otherwise stated to facilitate future
electrification.

2.4.5 Grade Requirements

Often in mountainous areas the roadway grade is governed by capacity of heaviest vehicle to
climb, vertical curve and sight distance. These grade requirements may increase the bridge
span more that required by hydraulic design.

9
Bridge Design Lecture Note
Examples of Span Determination
Example 1.
Select the total span and span subdivisions for Wuhama river bridge. The site plan and
centerline profile is given below.

Site plan with contours

Total span = 65.405m, c/c spans 33.65m at the middle flanked by two 15.36m spans.

Example 2
Select the total span and span subdivisions for the centerline profile given below.

10
Bridge Design Lecture Note

Solution

11