Chapter 1

Precast–Pretensioned Concrete
Girder Bridges
 1.1 Introduction

• Precast–pretensioned concrete girders, usually

referred to as precast girders, are fabricated of-site
(Figure 1.1), and then transported, erected, or
launched into the project site. During the period of
development of the United States’ Interstate highway
system in the late 1950s and early 1960s, prestressed
concrete became a practical solution in the design
and construction of highway bridges.
FIGURE 1.1 Precast bathtub girder (with posttensioned ducts) in pretensioning bed.
• In recent years, the aging highway bridge
infrastructure in the United States is being
subjected to increasing traic volumes and must
be continuously rehabilitated while
accommodating traic low.
• The traveling public is demanding that this
rehabilitation and replacement be done more
quickly to reduce congestion and improve
safety.
• The public demands for minimizing disruptions of
trafic and short-time road closure become a main
thrust for all state departments of transportation and
their regional partners to accelerate project delivery.
• Because precast girders require little to no falsework,
they are a preferred solution for jobs, where speed of
construction, minimal traic disruption, and/or minimal
environmental impact are required and temporary
construction clearance needs to be maintained.
Normally, the precast concrete girder bridge type is a very economical solution for
any situation where large quantities of girders are required and details are
repeatable. Precast concrete girder bridges become an optimum solution where
bridge projects face constraints such as, but not limited to, the following:
• Falsework restrictions
• Limited construction time
• Limited vertical clearance
• Minimum traffic disruptions
• Environmental impact requirements
• Complex construction staging
• Utility relocation
• Preservation of existing roadway alignment
• Maintaining existing traffic
• Future deck replacement
 1.2 Precast Concrete Girder Features
• Precast girders are prestressed to produce a tailored stress distribution
along the member at the service level to help prevent lexural cracking.
• For member eiciency, the girders have precompressed tensile zones—
regions such as the bottom face of the girder at midspan where
compression is induced to counteract tension due to expected gravity
loads (e.g., self-weight, superimposed dead loads such as deck weight,
barrier weight, overlay, and live loads). To achieve this, precast girders
employ prestressing strands that are stressed before the concrete
hardens.
• Pretensioning requires the use of a stressing bed, oten several
hundred feet long for eicient casting of a series of members in a long
line using abutments, stressing stands, jacks, and hold downs/hold ups
to produce the desired prestressing proile.
• The transfer of strand force to the pretensioned members
by bond between concrete and prestressing steel is
typically evident by the upward delection (camber) of
members when the strands are detensioned (cut or
burned) at the member ends.
• Steam curing of members allows for a rapid turnover of
forms (typically one-day cycle or less) and cost efficiency.
• Control in fabrication of precast girders also permits the
use of quality materials and many beneits such as higher-
strength materials and high modulus of elasticity, as well as
reduced creep, shrinkage, and permeability.
 1.2.1 Typical Sections
Typical cross sections of precast girders used for common bridges
are shown below:
• Precast I-Girder
• Precast Bulb-Tee Girder
• Precast Wide-Flanged Girder
• Precast Bath-Tub or U Girder
• Precast Solid and Voided Slab
• Precast Box Girder
• Precast Trapezoidal Girder
• Precast Double-Tee Girder
• Precast Deck Bulb-Tee Girder
• Among these girders, the I-girder has been most commonly
used in the United States for nearly 60 years. With bridge span
lengths normally ranging from 50 to 125 t, the I-girder typically
uses a depth-to-span ratio of approximately 0.045–0.050 for
simple spans. he depth-to-span ratio is approximately 0.005
less (i.e., 0.040–0.045) for multi-span structures made
continuous for live load. his structure type has proven to be an
excellent choice for rapid construction and widening of existing
structures.
• With no requirement for groundsupported falsework, precast
girder construction usually takes far less time than that taken
for cast-in-place construction.
• Once the deck is poured, the structural section becomes
composite, minimizing delections.
• The bulb-tee and bath-tub (or U-shape)
girders are targeted for bridge spans up to 150
t in length. he depth-to-span ratio is also in
the range of 0.045–0.050 for simple spans and
0.040–0.045 for continuous structures.
However, due to the weight limits of economic
trucking, the length of bath-tub girders is
limited to 120 t.
• The wide-langed girder (Figure 1.2) was recently
developed in several states in coordination with
precasters to produce more eicient bottom and top
lange areas that permit design for spans up to 200 t,
with a depth–span ratio of 0.045 (simple) and 0.004
(continuous). he larger bottom bulb accommodates
nearly 40% more strands than the standard bulb-
tee and, due to its shape, provides enhanced
handling and erection stability even at longer spans.
• Precast box girders are oten used for railway
systems and relatively short span lengths ranging
from 40 to 100 ft.
• It should be noted that using bridge depth-to-span
ratios to decide girder depth is approximate, but it is
a reasonable starting point for initial design and cost
estimates.
• When shallow girder depth is required, girder
spacing may have to be reduced to satisfy all design
criteria; however, this may result in increased cost.
 1.2.2 Typical Girder Span Ranges
• Each girder type has its own economical and
practical span length range and span length
limits. Table 1.1 lists the range of the span
length of each girder type.
• Local fabricators should be consulted and
coordinated with for the form availability of all
diferent girder shapes.
 1.2.3 Primary Characteristics of a Precast
Girder

• For a precast girder, the following three basic

stages of performance are addressed in
design: transfer, service, and strength.
• The stage of transfer refers to the time at which the
prestressing force in the strands is transferred to the
precast girder at the plant, typically by cutting or
detensioning the strands ater a minimum concrete
strength has been veriied.
• Because only the girder self-weight acts at this
stage, the most critical stresses are oten at the ends
of the girder, midspan, or harping points (also
known as drape points). Both tensile and
compressive stresses are checked.
• Service refers to the stage at which the girder and
slab self-weight act on the noncomposite girder, and
additional dead loads (e.g., barrier and wearing
surface) together with the live load act on the
composite girder. This stage is checked using the
AASHTO LRFD Service I and III load combination.
• Flexural strength is provided to satisfy all factored
loads. Figure 1.3 illustrates the diferent concrete
lexural stress distributions at transfer, deck pour, and
full service loading.
 1.2.4 Prestressing Strand Proile
• At the heart of the prestressed concrete design philosophy
is the positioning of the prestressing strands within the
precast girder: the center of gravity of the strands (cgs) is
deliberately ofset from the center of gravity of the concrete
section (cgc) to maximize the eccentricity, which is deined as
the distance between the cgs and cgc at a section.
• This eccentricity produces a beneicial tailored lexural stress
distribution along the length of the member to counteract
the lexural tension expected from gravity loads. he largest
eccentricity is provided at locations where tension is
expected to be the greatest.
• For a simply-supported girder with straight strands, the
large eccentricity between the cgs and the cgc section
helps reduce tension and possible cracking at midspan
at the service level.
• To reduce the tensile and compressive stresses at the
ends of girders, the designer normally c onsiders two
primary options:

(1) harping (or draping) strands to reduce the strand

eccentricity at the ends (Figures 1.4 and 1.5) or
(2) debonding (or shielding) selected strands at the
member ends to reduce the prestress force (Figure 1.6)
• By harping the strands in a precast girder, the eccentricity can be
varied in linear segments along the length of the girder by
mechanically delecting some of the stressed strands in the
casting beds prior to casting and using hold-downs and hold-ups,
as shown in Figures 1.4 and 1.5.
• Although draping is limited to strands within the web, only a
portion of the strands typically needs to be draped to achieve the
required eccentricity at girder ends. Typically the drape points are
located between approximately 0.30 L and 0.40 L.
• In addition, the drape angle must be limited to ensure that
jacking requirements and hold-down forces do not exceed the
available capacity.
• One of the beneits of draped strands is to provide a vertical
component to resist shear due to the drape angle at girder ends.
• In order to maximize fabrication eiciency and lower tensile stresses
near the ends of the girders, some manufactures prefer to use
straight strands with debonding some of the strands at the girder
ends (eliminating the bonding between concrete and prestress steel)
to satisfy stress limits at release. Figure 1.6 shows debonding of a
strand by encasing the strand in a plastic sheathing.
• The debonding strand prevents the prestressing force from
developing in the debonded region and causes the critical section for
stresses to shit a transfer length away from the end of debonding.
• Debonded strands are symmetrically distributed about the vertical
centerline of the girder, and debonded lengths of pairs of strands are
equal.
• AASHTO LRFD (2012) limits the number of partially debonded
strands to 25% of the total number of strands and the number of
debonded strands in any horizontal row is limited to 40% of the
strands in that row.