Steel-Concrete Viaducts in the Orastie-Sibiu Highway: a Eurocode Compliant Project

This paper is intended to show the design of two composite bridges along the Orastie- Sibiu motorway, from the basic concepts, applied without the need for a clause-by- clause checking of codes and standards, to the construction methods.

The bridges are seismically isolated in the longitudinal direction, while transversally the seismic action is distributed among the piers.

Calculations have been carried out through state of the art procedures, taking into account form effect of the cross section. For this reason, different FE models have been set up to study different aspects of the behavior, with increasing degrees of approximation. For example, “beam” elements have been utilised to investigate global effects both in the linear and non linear range, while more accuate 2D and 3D elements have been used for refined cases such as stress checks and local buckling analyses.

The present paper goes into detail in particular for what concerns some of the most interesting parts of the design process for the specific case. Namely, time dependent properties of the materials have been considered, and extensive “staged construction” analyses have been carried out to ensure safety in each phase of the complex life of the bridges, while at the same time guaranteeing significant cost savings.