Strengthening of a Long Span Prestressed Segmental Box Girder Bridge
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Strengthening of a Long Span Prestressed Segmental Box Girder Bridge Bruno Massicotte The Grand-Mere Bridge in the province of Ph.D., P.Eng. Quebec, Canada, is a 285 m (935 ft) long, Associate Professor cast-in-place, segmental box girder bridge that Department of Civil Engineering Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal experienced several problems which resulted Montreal , Quebec, Canada in distress characterized by an increasing de Formerly, Bridge Design Engineer at the Quebec Ministry of Transportation flection combined with localized cracking. These defects were due mainly to insufficient prestressing causing high tensile stresses in the deck and possible corrosion of the pre stressing steel. To remedy this situation, the Quebec Ministry of Transportation strength ened the bridge by adding external prestress Andre Picard ing equivalent to 30 percent of the remaining Ph.D., P.Eng. internal prestressing. The paper describes the Professor Department of Civil Engineering causes of the distress and focuses on the as Universite Laval sumptions adopted in the analyses to deter Quebec City, Quebec, Canada mine the current state of the bridge. The tech Yvon Gaumond, P.Eng. nique and design criteria used in strengthening Bridge Design Chief Engineer the Grand-Mere Bridge are described. Also, Bridge Department the construction aspects and the various prob Quebec Ministry of Transportation lems met during the external prestressing op Quebec City, Quebec, Canada eration are discussed. The new technology and experience gained in strengthening this structure can be applied to both pretensioned and post-tensioned concrete bridges. he Grand-Mere Bridge, a 285 m (935 ft) long, cast-in Claude Ouellet, P.Eng. place, post-tensioned segmental structure built in 1977 (Fig. 1), consists of a single-cell box girder. It is Senior Bridge Engineer T Bridge Department located 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Montreal on High Quebec Ministry of Transportation way 55, where it crosses the St. Maurice River near the Quebec City, Quebec, Canada town of Grand-Mere. 52 PCI JOURNAL An article on the design and con struction of the Grand-Mere Bridge appeared in the January-February 1979 PCI JOURNAV and the project won a Special Jury Award in the 1978 PCI Awards Program. This long and slender bridge is an elegant structure which blends in well with the sur rounding landscape. Unfortunately, this bridge experi enced various problems and distress during and after its construction, result ing in localized cracking and increasing deflection in the 181.4 m (595 ft) cen tral span. These problems were due mainly to insufficient prestressing as a result of construction problems, opti mistic design assumptions, and a lim ited state of knowledge at that time, es pecially regarding thermal stresses. Fig. 1. The Grand-Mere Bridge. Numerous studies showed that the short-term bridge safety was adequate. However, because of the potential risk SCOPE OF THE PAPER tant monitoring program carried out of cracking in the deck, the studies on the bridge during the strengthening also indicated that the long-term in This paper is the first of two com process. This program studied the var tegrity could be affected if corrective panion papers describing the correc ious aspects of the bridge's behavior measures were not taken immediately. tive measures applied to the Grand before, during and after the strength Based on these technical evaluations Mere Bridge. The scope of this first ening operation. and considering the structure's impor paper is to present the history of the tance, the owner, the Quebec Ministry bridge, describe the various problems of Transportation (QMT), decided to met during construction, and discuss BRIDGE DESCRIPTION strengthen the bridge. Additional lon the subsequent distresses, their causes The Grand-Mere Bridge, a 285 m gitudinal prestressing corresponding to and their remedies. It presents the as (935 ft) long structure, consists of 30 percent of the remaining amount sumptions used in the analyses to es three continuous spans of 39.6, 181.4 corrected the lack of sufficient pre tablish the bridge state and later to de and 39.6 m (130, 595 and 130ft), stressing. The strengthening design, in sign the strengthening program. The completed with a wedge-shaped, solid which the authors of this paper played use of individually lubricated strands cantilever of 12.2 m (40ft) at each end an active role, was done by the QMT and details of the cable anchorage sys acting as counterweights (Fig. 2). The Bridge Department. tem to the existing structure are de length of the central span was a re Construction began in May 1991 scribed. The construction aspects and markable achievement in 1977, and is and the additional prestressing was fi problems faced during the strengthen still among the longest for this kind of nally applied to the bridge in Novem ing process are also discussed. The bridge in North America. T~e bridge ber of the same year. The technology paper deals with practical considera is an elegant, slender structure span used in the strengthening of the bridge tions and is addressed to bridge engi ning the St. Maurice River. can be applied to all prestressed con neers who may face similar problems. In the central span, the depth of the crete structures, whether pretensioned The companion paper/ on the other box girder varies parabolically from or post-tensioned. hand, presents the details of an impor- 9.75 m (32 ft) at the piers to 2.90 m Exterior pier [m] 1 m = 3.28 ft Fig. 2. Longitudinal elevation of the Grand-Mere Bridge. May-June 1994 53 cantilever construction proceeded. The box girder was prestressed 4 ----12 800--------+1:1 142060 using 32 mrn (1.25 in.) diameter pre r stressing bars with 1030 MPa (150 ··~ ...,,l, .., .., .., ., .., .,..,. , .. , .., '\~/", ........... ~ ksi) ultimate stress. The bridge was prestressed longitudinally during the cantilever construction with 284 straight bars located in the upper deck. The continuity prestressing comprises 80 slightly curved bars in the bottom 0 LO flange and 48 draped bars in the webs {61 0 end spans ....... :~~ :i:~ 0) ::::::: 356 central span ::::::: (Fig. 4). Shear reinforcement consists of [mm) straight prestressing bars, either verti ~~~~~ ~ ~~.i cal or inclined, and of conventional 152 --~ 1000 mm =1m mild reinforcing steel. The deck is pre 1 m = 39.37 ln. stressed transversely with straight ; = 3.28 ft bars. Moreover, passive reinforcement ~ fFJ!!:{~/'t/Ji of each segment was extended through adjacent segment joints. The specified concrete strength was 34 MPa (5000 psi), except in the middle portion of 11) Cross section Ill the interior piers the central span, where 38 MPa (5500 psi) concrete was specified. INITIAL PROBLEMS AND SUBSEQUENT DISTRESS The bridge had experienced several [mm] problems originating from three sources: construction problems, design assumptions, and the limited state of knowledge at that time. The bridge de b) Cross section at midspan sign included two distinguishing fea tures: the slenderness of the 181.4 m Fig. 3. Cross sections of the Grand-Mere Bridge at interior piers and midspan. (595 ft) central span and the exclusive use of straight and curved prestressing bars for the longitudinal and trans (9.5 ft) at midspan (Fig. 3), giving piers as a consequence of the unusual verse prestressing. span-to-depth ratios of 18.6 and 62.6, center-to-end span ratio of 4.58. respectively. The depth of the box girder in the end spans varies slightly, Construction Problems Construction and Materials from 9.75 m (32ft) at the interior piers Construction problems originated to 8.53 m (28 ft) at the exterior piers. The bridge construction lasted two from three sources: coupling of nu The total width of the deck is 12.8 m years, from 1976 to 1977, interrupted merous bars, concreting, and grouting (42 ft), including a 6.7 m (22 ft) wide during the winter season to avoid cold the prestressing bars. top flange of the single-cell box girder weather concreting. The end spans First, to join 10 to 15 m (33 to 50ft) and two 3.05 m (10 ft) cantilevers. were erected the first year and were long bars over a length of up to 100 m This torsionally stiff box girder bridge cast on scaffolding. The central span (330 ft), the couplers used were some has only 1.83 m (6 ft) thick di was built in 1977, using the progres times unevenly screwed on two adja aphragms over the main piers. sive cantilever method with traveling cent bars, causing some to fail. Dam The designer planned to place 930 m3 forms for the cast-in-place segments. aged ducts, due to insufficient care (1216 cu yd) of gravel ballast in the After construction of the two segmen during concreting, restricted the free chambers of both end spans. The bal tal cantilevers of the central span, a sliding of bars and couplers during lasted chambers and the wedge-shaped, keystone segment was cast and the stressing. To overcome these two solid cantilevers would counterbalance continuity prestressing in the bottom problems, holes had to be made in the the weight of the main span during the flange and webs was added. Gravel top flange to replace or free some cou cantilever construction and avoid any ball ast in the end spans was applied plers and allow adequate prestressing. uplift of the box girder at the exterior progressively, in three stages, as the These necessary corrective measures 54 PCI JOURNAL 300r-------------------------------------------------~ Cantilever construction 250 prestressing bars 200 0 150 z0 100 284 top flange bars 50 ~ 100r---------------------------------------------------, jg Continuity prestressing bars 0 50 48 draped web bars ~ ~ ~~(~~---~ ~'-rr--........----- .-::::::::::::=__ -~ 0 ~ ) Longitudinal ct Transverse p bars 1 bars (web lti..bars) : / -r j: (Long: bars) ! t \: p I Not to scale (bottom flange bars) Cross section at interior pier Bottom flange Web bars bars" I(! r Cross section at midspan Fig.