Walterdale Bridge Replacement
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WALTERDALE Donna Clare is an architectural principal at DIALOG in BRIDGE Edmonton, Alberta leading the REPLACEMENT design of a variety of institutional and commercial projects including bridges, arts and cultural facilities, university buildings and religious facilities. Kris Lima is an Associate at GAMAL GHONEIM DIALOG in Edmonton, Alberta. He has been responsible for the project management, design and contract administration of many bridge projects. C.JAMES MONTGOMERY Gamal Ghoneim is an Associate at DIALOG in Calgary, Alberta where he has been responsible for the computer modeling, analysis and design of a variety of signature bridge and building projects. ANDREW GRIEZIC Dr. Andrew Griezic is a Chief Project Manager at Buckland & Taylor Ltd. in Vancouver, BC where he has been the lead DARREL GAGNON designer of several award winning bridge projects. Shiraz Kanji is the City of Edmonton, Alberta bridge engineer who has been involved in the design and rehabilitation of the city’s bridge inventory for SHIRAZ KANJI over 25 years. BIOGRAPHIES SUMMARY Dr. Jim Montgomery is a Integrating with the urban realm structural engineering principal and creating a landmark DONNA CLARE at DIALOG in Edmonton, gateway to the city's downtown, Alberta leading the design of a the Walterdale bridge broad cross-section of replacement will be a signature significant bridge, building, and structure located in the heart of specialty engineering projects Edmonton, Alberta's North across Canada. Saskatchewan River valley. Darrel Gagnon is a Chief The bridge will be a structural Project Manager at Buckland & steel twin through-arch Taylor Ltd. in Vancouver, BC. spanning 206 m, carrying the His experience includes the deck and a separate shared use design and construction path across the river. engineering of a wide range of KRIS LIMA signature bridges. WALTERDALE BRIDGE REPLACEMENT Introduction The new Walterdale bridge will be a signature In these figures, the bridge spans from the south structure located in the heart of Edmonton, bank of the river in the lower left corner to the Alberta's North Saskatchewan River valley, north bank in the upper right corner. The respecting the setting, and creating a landmark alternatives considered are as follows: gateway to the City's downtown. Standing the test Alternative 1 - A conventional twin arch of time, the bridge will become a point of pride for bridge that has a sidewalk and a shared use the citizens of Edmonton and draw people to the path outside the planes of cables that support river valley. The bridge will replace an existing the deck. The width of the shared use path on three-span structural steel truss bridge that was the east side of the bridge varies to add interest constructed in 1912 to 1913 to carry two lanes of and provide pedestrian lookouts. The cost roadway traffic and a street railway across the estimate for this alternative is 10 % less than river. that for Alternative 2. In the concept planning stage unique extradosed, This is the simplest to design, most arch and cable-stayed bridge alternatives were economical to build and easiest to construct compared to a more conventional girder bridge alternative for the bridge replacement. The alternative for the replacement. As the design signature feature is the use of arch ribs progressed through detailed design, a structural spanning a distance of more than two football steel through-arch bridge was selected as the fields between the riverbanks as part of the preferred alternative, spanning 206 m from bank to bridge superstructure. Many similar structures bank with a deck length of 230 m between have been constructed throughout the world. abutment centrelines. Alternative 2 - A twin arch bridge with a The replacement bridge will carry three lanes of sidewalk inside the plane of cables that northbound traffic on an alignment to the east of support the deck on the west side and a the existing structure. It will have a wide sidewalk separate curved shared use path in plan view to the west of the roadway and a separate shared on the east side. use path to the east. The complexity of design, cost and difficulty The C$155 M project has included an extensive of construction of this alternative are greater public consultation program. Construction of the than those for Alternative 1, but less than bridge commenced in June 2013, with completion those for Alternative 3. Alternative 2 has two expected in 2015. signature features: the use of arch ribs spanning between the riverbanks as part of the Preliminary Design bridge superstructure; and a separate shared use path east of the main structure that acts as The request for proposal from the owner, the City a magnet to draw pedestrians and cyclists of Edmonton, required that the bridge team design across the river a “functional” signature structure for the bridge replacement, but asked the team to respect budget Alternative 3 - A single arch bridge with a constraints that were set for the project. Figures 1, curved roadway deck in plan view with a 2 and 3, respectively, show in increasing sidewalk on the east side balanced by a complexity and cost three alternatives for the separate curved shared use path on the west bridge that were considered in preliminary design. side. The cost estimate for this alternative is 65 % more than that for Alternative 2. 1 of 12 Alternative 3 will be an iconic structure with three signature features: the use of a sculptural single arch rib spanning between the river banks as part of the bridge superstructure; a separate shared use path; and a novel structural system supporting the curved vehicular structure on the east side and the curved shared use path to the west. This alternative will be much more difficult to design and construct, and expensive to build, than Alternatives 1 and 2. It is expected that Figure 3 - Preliminary Design Alternative 3 - the design and construction schedules will Single Arch Rib with Separate Shared Use Path need to be extended for Alternative 3. To achieve a balance between aesthetics, cost and Detailed Design constructability related issues, the design team recommended and the client accepted that contract General documents be prepared for Alternative 2. Figures 4 and 5 show architectural renderings of the proposed Walterdale bridge replacement. The general arrangement of the bridge is shown in Figure 6. The bridge deck and shared use path are suspended by cables from two thrust arch ribs that are fabricated from structural steel plate into box- shaped sections, supported on concrete thrust blocks and founded in clay shale bedrock on the banks of the river. The deck is constructed from a concrete slab supported by structural steel wide flange stringers, floor beams fabricated from plate and box-shaped edge girders. The shared use path Figure 1 - Preliminary Design Alternative 1 - that is curved in plan is a trapezoidal-shaped box Twin Arch Ribs with Shared Use Path and girder fabricated from structural steel plate with a Sidewalk Outside of Planes of Cables steeply slanted east web. The bridge is designed using the provisions of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (1) for the CL-800 design truck and lane loading, and the environmental conditions in Edmonton. In addition to pedestrian loadings, the shared use path is designed to carry an 80 kN maintenance vehicle. A study of wind action on the bridge was undertaken by The Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (2). Figure 2 - Preliminary Design Alternative 2 - Twin Arch Ribs with Separate Shared Use Path 2 of 12 Figure 4 - Walterdale Bridge Replacement Viewed from Top of Bank Figure 5 - Walterdale Bridge Replacement Looking Towards Downtown Figure 6 - General Arrangement Drawing 3 of 12 Analysis Subject the bridge to other load cases. It may be necessary to fine tune the cable and The bridge superstructure was analyzed using compression member forces further to account CSiBridge (3) and CAMIL, an in-house computer for creep and shrinkage of the concrete deck. program that was developed by Buckland & Taylor Ltd. for the design of cable supported Finally, turn off gravity to determine the structures. The computer programs considered the unstressed geometry of the arch ribs, girders nonlinear geometric response of the structure to and cables. loads. As part of the analysis of the bridge, the tensions Thrust Blocks in the hanger cables that transfer loads from the deck and shared use path to the arch ribs, and the The results of testing in the detailed design phase axial forces in the arch ribs were tuned so that the confirmed that the geotechnical conditions at the member design actions are appropriate and the site are appropriate for a thrust arch bridge (4). In bridge has the desired geometry under dead load. the view of the project team, the aesthetic The procedure is similar to tuning a harp or appearance and technical performance of a thrust building a bicycle wheel. arch bridge is superior to that of a tied arch. The steps in tuning the bridge superstructure are as Figure 7 shows a partial elevation of one of the follows: south thrust blocks supporting the arch ribs. The thrust blocks are founded on clay shale that in rock Build a computer model of the bridge, mechanics terminology is described as extremely assuming that the cables can be modelled as weak to very weak (compressive strength of intact truss elements. rock is less than 5 MPa). Although described as Introduce initial tensile forces into the cables bedrock, the clay shale behaves as a heavily over that are consistent with the dead loads that consolidated soil. they will carry. The initial tensile forces can A number of pressuremeter tests were performed be introduced by subjecting the cables to in predrilled bore holes on the riverbanks to initial tensile strains (or equivalently a reduced estimate the stiffness and strength of the clay shale temperature or cable length).