Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol.

802 (2015) pp 295-300 Submitted: 2015-05-11

© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Revised: 2015-05-15
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.802.295 Accepted: 2015-05-17

Trends and Development of Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch

Bridge Systems
Chong Yong Ong1, a, Kok Keong Choong1,a, Geem Eng Tan2, b, Tai Boon Ong2,b
1
School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, 14300 Nibong Tebal,
Seberang Perai Selatan, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA
2
Rivo Precast Sdn Bhd, Lot 5127, Batu 6, Jalan Kenangan Off Jalan Meru, 41050 Klang, Selangor
Darul Ehsan, MALAYSIA
a b
cekkc@eng.usm.my, rivoprecast@gmail.com

Keywords: arch bridges, precast concrete closed spandrel arch bridge system, rectangular arch
section, corrugated arch section, Super-Light Deck, BEBO Arch, CON/SPAN Arch, Matiere Arch,
TechSpan arch, NUCON Arch, Concrete-Filled FRP Tube Bridge, Flexi-Arch, Rivo CS-P Series
arch, Pearl Chain Bridge.

Abstract. Arch bridges which have existed since thousands years ago showed surprising durability.
Due to the aesthetic value of arch bridges, it is widely used as crossing over valleys and rivers
nowadays. Closed spandrel arch bridge is one type of arch bridges that has been developed using
precast concrete technology since 1965. Currently, the available Precast Concrete Arch Bridge
Systems are BEBO arch, Matiere arch, CON/SPAN arch, TechSpan arch, NUCON arch,
Concrete-Filled FRP Tube arch, Flexi-Arch, Rivo CS-P Series arch and Pearl Chain arch. In this
paper, development of the Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System is reviewed. The
advantanges of precast closed spandrel arch bridge system will also be briefly presented.
Comparisons in terms of arch sections, moulding, handling, transporting and installing among
different Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge Systems are also highlighted.

Introduction
Arch bridges have been constructed around the world since thousands years ago. They acted as
crossing between countries, cities or districts overpassing valleys or rivers. The exceptional
performance of arch bridges have been recorded as early as 3000 B.C. by ancient Egyptians [1], 800
B.C. by the Assyrians [2], 100 B.C. by the Romans and 610 A.D. by the Chinese [3]. In this early
century, the material for arch bridges consists of stone, wooden and masonry.
Due to the materials’ (stone and bricks) properties, thus, arches can witstand high compression
force from the loading acted on the arches. Therefore, it is suitable to act as a compressive structure
such as culvert, arch cross drain, etc. Due to discovering of Portland cement in 1824, concrete
comprising of components such as cement, fine aggregate, course aggregate and water is fairly
common in the arch bridge construction since 1830 [4]. During the last quarter of 19th Century and
from early of 20th century, reinforced concrete (R.C.) was widely used for road and bridges. This
resulted in longer span of concrete arches to 100m in 1912 [4]. Development of the concrete materials
has apparently shown its increasing of strength of durability in concrete arch bridges.
One of the current trend in construction work is to prefabricate concrete structure components.
Taking full advantage of the precasting techniques, the use of precast concrete arches have become
norm in bridge construction. It has brought much contribution and convenience to the road and rail
bridges. Precast concrete units are often is preferable solution for small bridge replacement due to
their low initial cost, rapid installation and low maintainance [5].

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296 Modern Civil Engineering in Trend of the Sustainable Infrastructure
Development

Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System

In general, precast concrete arch bridges consisted of two types, namely Precast Concrete Closed
Spandrel Arch Bridge System and Precast Concrete Open Spandrel Arch Bridge System. In this
paper, Precast Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System is discussed. This system consists of few major
components. They are precast arch element, spandrel wall, foundation, wingwall and backfilling
components. There are few advantages of using Precast Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System. The
advantages are as shown below:
• Efficient in the use of materials compared to beam bridge. It is due to the reason that beam
bridge will result in greater bending moment compared with arch bridge
• Durable and Aesthetic
• Joint-less pavement on top. It is because that arch bridge does not need expension joint
• Fast-pace installation
• Minimum disruption of streambeds during construction
• Able to form any desired shape accurately
• Smooth concrete surface
• Erection without formwork
• Low maintainance.

Development of Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System

Year and Country Originated Currently the available of this system are BEBO Arch Bridge
System [1], Matiere Arch Bridge System [7], TechSpan Arch Bridge System [8,9], NUCON Arch
Bridge System [10], Concrete-Filled FRP Tube Arch Bridge System [11], Flexi-Arch Bridge System
[12], Rivo CS-P Series Arch Bridge System [13], Pearl Chain Arch Bridge System [14] and
CONSPAN Arch Bridge System [15]. Table 1 shows the year and country originated for Precast
Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System.
Table 1: Year and Country Originated for Precast Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System
Precast Arch Bridge System Year Originated Originated Country
BEBO 1965 Switzerland
Matierre 1983 France
CON/SPAN B-Series 1983 United States
TechSpan 1983 Spain
NUCON 1995 United Kingdom
Concrete-Filled FRP Tube Arch 2001 United States
Flexi-Arch 2008 United Kingdom
Rivo CS-P Series 2008 Malaysia
Pearl Chain Arch 2010 Denmark
CON/SPAN O-Series 2012 United States

Span and Type of Arch Segment. These systems have their own limited designed spans and are
generally assembled from single-leaf, double-leaf or triple-leaf precast elements (Figure 1). Table 2
shows the span and type of arch segment for each systems.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1: Precast arch segment types: (a) Single leaf; (b) Double leaf; (c) Triple leaf
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 802 297

Table 2: Span and Type of Arch Segment for Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System
[6,7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,13,14,15]

Type Single Span (m) Type of Arch Segment

BEBO Arch System

E-Series 3.6–25.6 Single- and Twin- leaf
C-Series 9.1–12.8 Single- and Twin- leaf
T-Series 7-31 Single-leaf
Matiere Arch System
CM 2 1.5–3.0 Single-leaf
CM 3 3.0–8.0 Twin-leaf
CM 4 2.5–20.0 Triple-leaf
TechSpan System
TechSpan Up to 20 Twin-leaf
NUCON Arch System
NUCON - Single-leaf
Concrete Filled FRP Tube Arch System
Bridge-In-A-BackpackTM 10.7 – 19.8 Single-leaf
Flexi-Arch System
Flexi-Arch Up to 10.0 Single-leaf
Double Radius Flexi-Arch 8.0–15.0
Rivo Arch Bridge System
CS-P Series 6.5 to 30.0 Twin-leaf
Pearl Chain Bridge System
Pearl Chain >30.0 Single-leaf
CON/SPAN Bridge System
B-Series 3.7 – 18.3 Single-leaf
O-Series 4.0 – 19.8 Single-leaf
20.1 – 26.5 Double-leaf

Arch Profile. These systems‘ arch profile can be in circular, elliptical or parabolic in order to suit
to structural and functional requirement of the specific project.

Arch Section. Initially, simple reinforced concrete rectangular section is adopted by BEBO arch,
Matiere arch, TechSpan arch and CON/SPAN arch. (Figure 2(a)). Simple rectangular section is easy
for mould fabrication. However, the section becomes heavy and bulky for longer span arch with the
increased thickness. Subsequent costs of handling, transporting and installation are also affected with
the increased weight of the precast segments resulting in the necessity of heavier machineries and
equipment. Since so, NUCON arch uses plain concrete NUCON blocks with own section as shown in
Figure 2(b). Since the introduction of FRP, Concrete Filled FRP Tube arch applies the circular
concrete section with FRP wrapped (Figure 2(c)). It is proven more durable. For Flexi-Arch System, it
is similar to NUCON arch which uses solid rectangular segmental blocks section as shown in Figure
2(a)). Corrugated section which has been proven to have higher stiffness and substantial material
saving is then developed by Rivo CS-P Series Arch System. Considering the segmental blocks
concept and prestressing and post-tensioning technology, Pearl Chain Bridge System is developed.
Figure 2(e) represents the Super-Light Deck section of Pearl Chain Bridge System.
298 Modern Civil Engineering in Trend of the Sustainable Infrastructure
Development

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Figure 2: Arch Sections: (a) Rectangular Solid; (b) NUCON [10]; (c) Circular Concrete Filled FRP
Tube [11]; (d) Corrugated [13]; (e) Pearl Chain Super-Light Deck [14]

Design Philosophy of Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System

By taking full advantage of precast technology and limitations, the following aspects have been
taken into account in the conceptualization and development of the closed spandrel arch bridge
system: functionality and aesthetics, arch profile development and foundation design, transportation
arch panel, casting arch panel, de-moulding and stacking, site installation and on-site joint and
backfilling process. The arch systems are designed to withstand the loading based on respective
country’s code of practice. They are modelled accordingly in design and analysis for all possible
loading stages. Consideration of soil-structure interaction is also taken into account in the design
analysis as to represent the soil behaviour to the arch structure. This consideration may optimize the
design of arch panel as well.

Precast Aspect of Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge System

Moulding and Casting. There are two ways of mould design with respect to the concrete pour
direction for casting process, namely ‘side pour’ and ‘top pour’. The arch systems that are adopting
the ‘side pour’ as shown in Figure 3(a) are BEBO arch, Matiere arch, TechSpan arch and CON/SPAN
arch. Whereas ‘top pour’ represented in Figure 3(b) and Figure 3(c) is adopted by NUCON Arch,
Flexi-Arch System, Rivo CS-P Series Arch and Pearl Chain Arch Bridge. For Concrete Filled FRP
Tube arch, at first, the arch shape is formed by the circular FRP without concrete infill, then the FRP
is infused with resin in order to form rigid arch shape (Figure 3(d)). For this arch system, concrete is
only infilled into the circular FRP after the arch is installed to position.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 3: Moulding: (a) BEBO Arch [6]; (b) Flexi-Arch [17]; (c) Rivo CS-P Series [13]; (d) Concrete
Filled FRP Tube arch [16]

Transporting. Transportability requirement is also part of the precasting aspect. For the systems
which adopted the ‘side pour’ method, usually one piece of arch panel is able to be transported by a
trailer which is illustrated in Figure 4(a). However, Rivo CS-P Series Arch System enables two units
arch panel being transported by a trailer (Figure 4(b)). For arch system such as NUCON Arch,
Flexi-Arch, Pearl Chain Arch and Concrete Filled FRP Tube arch, more than two units arch panel can
be transported by a trailer (Figure 4(c) and 4(d)).
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 802 299

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 7: Transportation of arch panel by a trailer: (a) BEBO arch [6]; (b) Rivo CS-P Series [13]; (c)
Flexi-Arch [16]; (d) Pearl Chain Bridge [14]

Handling and Installing. The ease of handling and installing the arch systems mainly depend on
the mould design with respect to the concrete pour direction. ‘Side pour’ method arch systems usually
possess two different location of lifting hooks, namely side lifting hook (for demoulding and handling
purpose) and top lifting hook (for installing purpose). Hence two cranes are needed when installing
the arch panel in position which is shown in Figure 8. For Flexible-Arch, Rivo CS-P Series Arch and
NUCON arch, only one location lifting hook is needed for handling and installing purpose of arch
panel (Figure 9 and Figure 10). For Concrete Filled FRP Tube arch, it is handled and installed by two
methods (Figure 11). The methods are by using light machinery by tieing at the mid span of the arch
tube or by manpower. Once, this arch is in placed, concrete is infilled to the FRP tube.

(a) (b)
Figure 8: Two locations of lifting hook:
(a) for demoulding and handling; (b) for installing of arch panel [6]

(a) (b)
Figure 9: Location of lifting hook: (a) for demoulding and handling; (b) for installing of Flexi-Arch
panel [16]

Figure 10: Location of lifting hook: (a) for demoulding and handling; (b) for installing of Rivo CS-P
Series arch panel [13]

Figure 11: Lifting of FRP Tube arch: (a) Light Machinery; (b) Manpower
[www.aitbridges.com, dated 30/4/2015]
300 Modern Civil Engineering in Trend of the Sustainable Infrastructure
Development

Concluding Remarks
This paper shows the overview of all available Precast Concrete Closed Spandrel Arch Bridge
Systems in the market. Consideration of various precasting aspects such as moulding, handling,
transporting and installing for each arch system are briefly described. It is hoped that these systems
will contribute to the sustainable bridge construction.

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