Renewal of old existing small road bridges with modular system – CASE STUDY Mânărău BRIDGE

Abstract

Romania has a highway network of approx. 154 000 km on which there are over 3300 bridges. The usual range of these bridges is situated in the field of medium spans and was dominated in the past by concrete bridges. At the same time more than 50 % of the total number of bridges is designed for the loading class I (Lorries A 13 tones, S 60 tonnes). For them the National Administration of Roads proposes (in a long term program – Romanian Highway Administration Report 2003) their rehabilitation and upgrading to Loading class E (Lorries A 30 tones, V 80 tonnes). The European RFCS project ECOBRIDGE or Demonstration of ECOnomical BRIDGE solutions based on innovative composite dowels and integrated abutments [1] started in 2010 and has the principal objective to continue the research, demonstration projects and accompanying measures for the promotion of knowledge gained by the two pilot projects: INTAB – “Economic and Durable Design of Composite Bridges with Integral Abutments”, 2005 – 2008 and PRECOBEAM – “Prefabricated Enduring Composite Beams based on Innovative Shear Transmission”, 2006 – 2009. The main conclusion of the two pilot projects was that the composite dowel strips combined with the integral structure concept find a wide application in bridges. The article presents the first Romanian proposed project for the European RFCS program in which the composite dowel strips together with integral abutments in terms of construction details and economic aspects are implemented.