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Transportation Research Record 1696

Paper No. 5B0135

New Trends in
Prestressed Concrete Bridges
Michel Virlogeux
An overview of the recent evolution in the design and construction of prestressed concrete bridges worldwide is provided. Several major trends
are evidenced. Certainly those trends that have had greater inuences on
the industry because of their wide applications are the development of
external prestressing, which is now systematically used in some countries
for medium-span bridges; the emergence of high-performance concrete,
which extends the possibilities at the same time as it improves the durability of concrete structures; and the more frequent association of steel
and concrete for composite bridges of different types and composite elements in bridges, allowing the construction of many innovative structures. For more specic applications, cable-stayed bridges, for which
interesting developments have been seen in the last 10 years, and the
more extensive use of heavy prefabrication in large projects, with elements
up to several thousands of metric tons, are also described. Bridge architecture is also discussed in terms of the fact that good structural designs
can produce elegant prestressed concrete bridges.

This paper was initially prepared as a keynote lecture for the FIP
1994 Congress in Washington, D.C. (FIP is the Fdration Internationale de la Prcontrainte, which merged in 1998 with the Comit
Euro-International du Bton to constitute the Fdration Internationale du Bton Lausanne, Switzerland). As this lecture had been a
last-minute replacement it was not published in the proceedings. It
has been updated and supplemented for the TRB conference. The
paper aims at providing an overview of the major trends in the design
and construction of concrete bridges, including the association of
steel and concrete and the development of new materials.
RAPID DEVELOPMENT
OF EXTERNAL PRESTRESSING
One of the major trends in the recent evolution of prestressed concrete
bridges is the increasing use of external prestressing.
Modern Applications of External Prestressing
External tendons were used in the rst applications of prestressing,
either as the nal solution (Dischinger, Magnel, Lossier, Coignet)
or as a rst step to bonded prestressing tendons (Finsterwalder,
Leonhardt). With the development of prestressing systems, however,
the idea was almost abandoned.
The use of external tendons became an obligation in France in
the 1970s, when additional prestressing tendons had to be installed

24 Rue de la Division Leclerc, 78-830 Bonnelles, France.

in existing bridges built by the cantilever method when thermal

gradients, friction losses, and hyperstatic creep effects had been
underestimated. This allowed the rapid development of an adapted
technology, with ducts in high-density polyethylene.
The idea of using these external tendons for the erection of new
bridges very soon came along; the first applications were in the
United States by Jean Muller, who, at the time, was associated
with Eugene Figg, for bridges in the Florida Keys. Soon afterward
new solutions for different types of bridges were developed in
France.

Design and Erection Techniques

In his first applications, Jean Muller anchored all external tendons
at the piers, in thick anchorage cross-beams, with deviations in the
spans. The author totally supports the concept, and almost all
applications in which external tendons have been anchored in the
spans in blisters or diaphraghms were revealed to be heavier and
more complex.
This efficient solution, however, has an evident drawback: the
complete span must be erected before the installation of external
tendons, and something must balance self-weight. The organization of external tendons is thus totally dependent on the erection
technique.

Span-by-Span Erection
All the rst applications of external prestressing by Jean Muller
were for bridges built span by span with precast segments. Each new
span was erected on a mobile truss, which supported the precast segments before the closing with the previous span by a wet joint and
before the installation of external tendons: Long Key, Channel Five,
Niles Channel, and, later, many others (Figure 1).
Alternative techniques were developed in the United States and
France: with a launching gantry lifting the assembled span, such as
for the Seven Mile Bridge or for the access spans to the Sunshine
Skyway Bridge; with a temporary cable-staying system, such as for
the Vallon des Fleurs and la Banquire Viaducts; with a launching
gantry suspending all precast segments, such as for the Bubiyan
Bridge; or with a launching beam supporting all segments, such as
by Freyssinet for the bridges on the Romulo Bettancourt Motorway
in Venezuela (Figure 2) or for a series of viaducts in Bangkok,
Thailand (Figure 3).
This technique has recently been introduced in Japan with the
erection of the Yatomi Viaduct near Nagoya by the Japan Highway
Public Corporation (Figure 4).

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Paper No. 5B0135

239

FIGURE 1 Long Key Bridge: all the segments of the span to be built are installed on the
mobile truss.

Construction by Balanced Cantilever Method

FIGURE 2 Installation of precast segments on the launching beam

of the Romulo Bettancourt Motorway (courtesy of Freyssinet).

FIGURE 3 One of the launching beams designed by Jean Muller in

Bangkok, as well as several mobile trusses (courtesy of JMI).

For bridges built by the cantilever method, a new concept with internal and external tendons was developed: self-weight (and the weight
of mobile carriages) is balanced by internal tendons, which remain
in the upper nodes of the cross section to have no tendon in the webs
and to maintain all practical advantages of external prestressing; after
the closure of the span, external tendons are installed from support to
support, anchored in thick cross beams on supports, and deviated in
the spans (Figure 5).
The rst application was for the la Flche Bridge, where cantilevers
were built on scaffoldings on the banks and were installed by rotation
around the piers. Many other applications followed, however, among
which the most important are the R Island Bridge (Figure 6), the
Chevir Bridge (Figure 7), and the Arrt Darr Viaduct.
The most recent applications have been for the new high-speed
train line between Lyon and Marseille. The French Railways accepted
external prestressing for several bridges including the Avignon
Viaducts, which were built from precast segments. For the distri-

FIGURE 4 Erection of the first spans of the Yatomi Viaduct

(photo, M. Virlogeux).

FIGURE 5

FIGURE 6

Organization of prestressing tendons, internal and external, in a bridge built by the balanced cantilever method.

R Island Bridge during erection (photos, G. Forquet).

FIGURE 7

Chevir Bridge over the Loire River (photo, G. Forquet).

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241

bution of external tendons, the design has been amended by the contractor, Bouygues and GTM; by following an idea already applied in
the 1970s by Jacques Fauchart, the external tendons are not anchored
at the supports to reduce the weight of the on-pier segment elements;
they are anchored in the spans on blisters in such a way as to double
their effective number in the midspan zone (Figure 8).

Construction by Incremental Launching Method

For bridges built by the incremental launching method, solutions
were developed in steps with Claude Servant, Michel Placidi, and
Jacques Combault.
The rst step consisted of the use of internal tendons during
launching. The tendons were installed in the upper and lower nodes
of the cross section; some straight and temporary external tendons
might be installed to increase prestressing forces when necessary.
After launching, external tendons are placed with a classical design:
anchorage at the supports and deviations in the spans (Figure 9).
Temporary external tendons, if any, are removed, and the internal
tendons might be organized in such a way that some of them are
removed since they are unfavorable in the nal situation. Some internal tendons can also be added in the lower nodes in the spans or in
the upper nodes at the supports (Roquebillre and Poncin Viaducts).
The nal solution is more efficient. Some of the permanent external tendonsgenerally half of themare installed in the box girder
before launching and are balanced by as many external temporary tendons, which have an opposite layout and which are thus called antagonist tendons; this results in axial prestressing forces as necessary.
After launching, temporary antagonist tendons are detensioned and
reused, one by one, as nal external tendons, with a classical layout:
anchorage at the supports and deviations in the spans (Figure 10). Of
course, internal tendons can be placed in upper and lower nodes all
along the bridge before or after launching in the zones where they are
efficient. The concept has been developed in steps: Marseille No. 33
Viaduct, Val de Durance Bridge, Amiens Viaduct (Figure 11), and the
access spans to the Normandie Bridge (Figure 12), where the nal system has been fully applied for the rst time. Temporary straight external tendons have been used during launching in some applications,
such as for Charix Viaduct (Figure 13).
Some contractors who aimed at building bridges with only horizontal external tendons, which were installed before launching, had
to be opposed. This results in a poor distribution of permanent
stresseseven when fullling code requirementsand cannot be
compared with designs in which external tendons are deviated in the
spans, counteracting by their deviations 60 to 70 percent of vertical
gravity forces.
These concepts were later developed in Germany by J. Eibl, with
slightly different designs.

Construction from Complete Spans

FIGURE 8

Very large projects are now multiplying all over the world and are
producing an evolution in design and construction. They call for
prefabrication of very large units and for heavy lifting.
Because of the sizes of these projects and for greater efficiency,
the idea of erecting bridges from complete spans, prefabricated and
prestressed on a yard and later installed with suitable equipment,
was developed. If the bridge is made of a series of simply supported
spans directly installed on the supports, the tendons can be placed in
the prefabrication yard with an adapted design, either internal or

Avignon Viaducts (courtesy of Bouygues).

external; the situation is more complex when the design aims at

restoring a continuous deck from the complete spans.
Cowi-Consult proposed such a design for the access spans to the
Eastern Bridge of the Storebaelt. The precast units were shorter than
the nal spans and were prestressed with external tendons; they were
lifted between the piers, with temporary supports anchored to the

FIGURE 9 First solution developed for the incremental launching method: straight tendons during launching and
undulated external tendons after final installation. (a) During launching. ( b) After launching.

FIGURE 10 Final solution developed for the incremental launching

method: final external and temporary external and antagonist
tendons, later reused as final ones. (a ) During launching. ( b) After
launching.

FIGURE 12 Access spans of Normandie Bridge with launching

nose (photo, G. Forquet).

FIGURE 11 Amiens Viaduct during launching (courtesy of

Campenon Bernard).

FIGURE 13 Charix Viaduct during launching (courtesy of

C. Servant, Citra-Spie Batignolles).

Virlogeux

piers. The gap between two successive units was later lled by concreting between the on-pier segment and its main cross beam, and
then prestressing tendons (mainly, very short tendons on supports to
extend the existing external tendons in the precast units on both sides)
were installed to balance all loads. Such a design has not been considered to be very efficient, when the author has been invited to give
an opinion, but the author has not been able to propose a better one.
The author kept this problem in mind, and the solution came naturally when a similar solution proposed by Trafalgar and Campenon
Bernard for the Central Viaduct of the Vasco de Gama Bridge over
the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal, was discovered.
As the erection technique was still open, it was recommended that
the precast spans be installed on temporary bearings on the piers
themselves, just leaving a short gap between them for a wet joint.
An adapted bracing system was organized, with the nal shape of a
V centered on the nal bearings. The bracing system is divided into
two inclined cross beams in the fabrication situation, one in each of
the two adjacent spans, also adapted to the position of the temporary
bearings. External tendons installed in the prefabrication yard are
anchored at each end in the higher part of the inclined cross beam,
as usual; in the simply supported situation they are balanced by internal tendons installed in the lower nodes, with the necessary number
of them anchored on supports. After erection, as many external tendons are installed in each span. These cross in the upper cross
beams, which constitute the upper part of the bracing system, resulting in an absolutely continuous system of external tendons. Some
short internal tendons are tensioned on supports in the lower nodes
to avoid tensile stresses locally in the lower slab (Figure 14).
This concept has been developed by the contractor, Trafalgar
(now Kvaerner) and Campenon Bernard, but it is more appropriate
to mention the construction of this viaduct later, in the section
devoted to heavy prefabrication.
Extension of External Prestressing
External prestressing is now developing in many countries. In the
United States, Jean Muller and Eugene Figg have separately designed

FIGURE 14 Principle of installation of fully precast and

prestressed spans, with a later closure on support; proposed
organization of external and internal tendons, later developed by
Trafalgar House Technologie.

Paper No. 5B0135

243

many important bridges and viaducts prestressed with external tendons and mainly built from precast segments. The American Segmental Bridge Institute is helping very much with the development of
these ideas and techniques. During its fall convention in Houston,
Texas, in 1988, the American Concrete Institute organized a seminar
devoted to external prestressing and its development. Much research
has been performed at universities, mainly in Austin, Texas, under the
direction of John Breen, and an AASHTO code has been established
for segmental bridges. The code is mainly oriented toward externally
prestressed segmental bridges.
In France, 80 percent or more of very large road bridges are now
built with external tendons, mainly under the authors inuence when
he was in charge of the Service dEtudes Techniques des Routes et
Autoroutes (SETRA) large bridges division, because the increased
construction quality permitted by external prestressing was considered to be a major factor. With the collaboration of Freyssinet the
concept of replaceable external tendons was developed, ignoring
at the beginningthe fact that the ideas of Dischinger and Lossier
had only been reproduced.
French contractors exported these ideas: to the Bubiyan Bridge in
Kuwait (Bouygues) and the Amouguez Bridge in Morocco (Spie
Batignolles). Design offices, too, mainly Jean Muller International,
used these ideas: for viaducts of the Monterey mass transit system
(Mexico), viaducts of the Bangkok motorways (Thailand), viaducts
of the Romulo Bettancourt Motorway (with Freyssinet), and the
Gian Bridge in Vietnam (Freyssinet and SETRA).
The idea developed in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria under
the inuence of J. Eibl. Applications also exist now in Belgium,
Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. In addition, one
must not forget the Confederation Bridge in Canada, which will be
described later.
The ban on internal tendons that has been enforced by the authorities in Great Britain for some years and the recent specications that
forbid the use of internal tendons for some applications in Germany
must be mentioned. These decisions were made because the corrosion
of internal tendons that developed in some bridges because of poor
grouting produced one or two accidents and called for expensive
rehabilitations.
The goals of the relevant authorities who consider strong improvements to construction quality and the organization of serious quality
assurance before restoring the use of classical internal and grouted
tendons to be necessary are fully understood. It must be clear, however, that although externally prestressed structures are considered
efficient and although they allow high-quality construction, internal
tendons constitute a good solution when they are conveniently designed, installed, tensioned, and grouted; they cannot be replaced by
external tendons for medium and short spans. In addition, one must
be conscious of the fact that poor grouting is also a major problem
for external tendons, with some specic drawbacks.
It must be added that there is a great danger that higher quality
will never be reached if adapted contracts are not prepared. All over
the world, administrators are less concerned with the technical aspects
of construction; increased (more international) competition leads to
lower prices, and unqualied civil servants are not in a strong position to prefer experienced designers and contractors with higher
prices. High construction quality can come only from good designs
and work performed by qualied and experienced personnel and site
managers with convenient site control, with specialized contractors
used for specialized work.
In all countries, administrators must be conscious of the fact that
they take a direct and important part of the responsibility when they
give contracts to unqualified designers and contractors or when

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Transportation Research Record 1696

they give a contract at such a low price that it is clear, for example,
that no serious control can be done.
Finally, going back to external prestressing, design and construction can be considered to be well mastered, including the behavior of
externally prestressed structures up to failure. One must avoid the use
of excessive specications, such as for the Severn Bridge, where the
lengths of the external tendons were limited to 40 percent of the span
length; one must convince owners that external prestressing is an
improvement, especially for railway bridges, and one can expect that
it will have more and more success.

Bridges Supported from Below

A last word should be offered about bridges supported from below
by cables, reproducing a solution used during the 19th century for
steel bridges with steel tension members in place of cables. The Truc
de la Fare Bridge over the A75 Motorway is an excellent example
(Figure 15), but the best is the Osormort Viaduct design by Javier
Manterola near Barcelona, Spain (Figure 16).
This is not really external prestressing, however. Important stress
variations can develop in the cables, depending on the decks exural
rigidity, at locations as high or even higher than those in cable-stayed
bridges. As for the extradossed bridges, which will be mentioned
later, these cables cannot be considered simple tendons.

DEVELOPMENT OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

In many countries, for different reasons, composite bridges are economically competitive. In France, for example, they are very successful against prestressed concrete bridges for medium spans,
between 40 and 80 m, especially for small bridges; only for very
large bridges can the high cost of construction equipment for concrete bridges be paid back from the great volume. Composite bridges
have good economical efficiency for several reasons:
Efficient fabrication in a factory, with computer-aided equipment. The goal of producing steel elements by computer-aided
fabrication techniques is not far from being reached.
Efficient evolution in the design of steel members: reduced
stiffening and the use of much thicker plates for the main members,
resulting in a drastic reduction in weld length and large savings in
labor costs.

FIGURE 15

Truc de la Fare Bridge (photo, M. Virlogeux).

FIGURE 16 Osormort Viaduct (courtesy of J. Manterola,

Fernandez Casado).

Codes written with the idea of increasing the competitiveness

of steel and composite structures as far as technically possible, with
very simple requirements and rules; at the same time codes prepared
for concrete structures are heavier and more complex, calling for
expensive analyses, and are often increasing the reinforcement ratio
above the real need.
Nevertheless, composite bridges are considered to be interesting
and one of the possible solutions, sometimes an excellent one. For
this reason, the design of concrete slabs and other ideas for a larger
association of steel and concrete are discussed here.

Design of Concrete Slabs

of Composite Bridges
Going back to the influence of codes, it is evident that in many
countries specications are much more severe for the upper slab of
a prestressed concrete box girder than for the top slab of a composite bridge. This is totally illogical: the concrete slab ignores
what is below.
The specications for concrete slabs of composite bridges can be
very different in different countries; in some cases not enough attention had been given to them, and this can result in severe cracks. It
is thus considered necessary to improve their design for increased
durability.
One must decide between slabs cast in situ, slabs made of precast
elements with wet joints, and totally precast slabs.
Slabs cast in situ have strong advantages: simple erection and
easy connection. They must suffer high tensile strains produced by
shrinkage, with a full effect restrained by the steel beams, and produced by loads, including the effects of the concreting steps, which
can be important if the steps are not well organized. In addition, it
is difficult to balance these unfavorable actions by longitudinal prestressing forces, because many of the prestressing forces would
pass into the steel beams, some of which are increased with concrete creep. The prestressing forces introduced into steel webs are
even unfavorable for their stability.

Virlogeux

FIGURE 17

Paper No. 5B0135

Use of precast elements for concrete slab of composite bridges.

Slabs made of precast elements also have some advantages: low

cost and, possibly, good prefabrication. The connection can be organized in pockets above the upper members of the longitudinal beams,
with the corresponding problems (density of connectors, corrosion
protection between steel beams and slab outside pockets), or with wet
joints above longitudinal main beams and cross beams when cross
beams also support the slab (Figure 17). Such a solution, however, is
not a complete answer to the question: even if shrinkage could have
developed in the precast elements, it will at least partly occur in the
connection concrete, which will constitute the weak points in the system. It is still difficult to introduce longitudinal prestressing into the
concrete slab.
The best solution would be to prefabricate the top slab and to
prestress it longitudinally before connecting the slab to the steel
structure below: shrinkage could have developed before the connection is done, and prestressing forces could also be installed in
the slab before connection. Only creep effects in concretewhich
are limited by prefabricationwould reduce prestressing forces in
the slab. For such a purpose, the slab could be made of precast elements, with wet joints used to produce the longitudinal continuity
before prestressing of the slab; the connection of the slab to the
steel structure below would be made later, or the prestressed slab
could be launched on the steel structure, as was done by Swiss engineers more than 20 years ago, before a final connection to steel
(Figure 18).

tive to nd an elegant solution. Such a solution would constitute

important progress for design and durability.
Composite Cross Sections
Finally, engineers must take full advantage of steel, concrete, and
prestressing tendons and prestressing philosophy by designing more
than just classical composite bridges with I-shaped beams and a slab
(Figures 19 and 20) or with a box girder and a slab (Figure 21).
About 15 years ago, replacement of the concrete webs of classical
box girders by steel elements was attempted in France:
Classical stiffened plates with the La Fert-Saint-Aubin Bridge,
Steel plane trusses with the Arbois Bridge (Figure 22), or
Undulated webs, more precisely, folded webs, with the Cognac,
Charolles (Figure 23), and Astrix Park Bridges.
These solutions were found to be slightly more expensive than
classical ones and, except for those with steel folded webs, have been
abandoned. The idea was reused in Japan, and recently, Campenon
Bernard built the Dole Bridge over the Doubs River; the deck is a
box girder built by the balanced cantilever method with two steel
folded plates for webs. The Hontani Bridge in Japan was directly
inspired by this concept (Figure 24).
Recently, Bouygues came back to the idea of using three-dimensional trusses made of precast segmentssuch as on the Bubiyan

It is clear, however, that the later connection between the steel

structure and the slab is a major problem. It can be organized in pockets, as done by the Swiss engineers, with the problems already mentioned; some engineers, like Michel Placidi, developed new solutions,
but they are not totally efficient or economical. One must be inven-

FIGURE 18
structure.

245

Launching a precast and prestressed slab on a steel

FIGURE 19 Abbeville Viaduct: a wide slab, transversally

prestressed, supported by two I-shaped beams (courtesy of
Baudin Chateauneuf).

FIGURE 20 Bridge at Bayonne over the Nive River: two I-shaped

beams and multiple cross beams supporting a wide slab (photo, T.
Kretz, SETRA ).

FIGURE 21 Pompadour Bridge, Paris area: a small box girder and

a concrete slab (photo, G. Forquet).

FIGURE 23
Forquet ).

Viaduct du Vallon de Maupr at Charolles (photo, G.

FIGURE 22 Arbois Bridge over the Cuisance River (photo, D. Le

Faucheur, SETRA ).

FIGURE 24

Hontani Bridge, Japan (photo, M. Virlogeux).

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247

Bridge and the Sylans and Glacires Viaductsbut with steel tubes
replacing the concrete diagonal members. The Boulonais Viaducts
(three viaducts of more than 2 km in length altogether) were built on
the A28 Motorway. This solution faces two major problems, however: the transfer of large tensile forces from some diagonal members to the concrete slabs and the transfer of shear forces through the
joints, which are limited to lower and upper slabs (Figure 25).

Composite Spirit
Many other associations of concrete and steel have been invented:
In the Queen Mathilde Bridge, at Rouen, France, and in the
Chevir Bridge, at Nantes, France, a steel orthotropic span is simply
supported from concrete cantilevers extending a prestressed concrete viaduct. Similar solutions have been developed in Spain,
especially by Javier Rui-Wamba, but continuity has been provided
between steel and concrete (Figure 26).
In the Tampico, Ikuchi, and Normandie cable-stayed bridges,
the access spans are in prestressed concrete, and only the central part
of the main span is an orthotropic box girder, to take advantage of a
light steel structure in the main span and of the large difference in
weight with concrete to tie down the deck to the piers in the access
spans (Figure 27).
With Jacques Mathivat, the author designed a composite deck
for two concrete arch bridges, the Chateaubriand Bridge over the
Rance River and the Morbihan Bridge over the Villaine River at la
Roche-Bernard. Composite decks are lighter, and when their weight
is installed in steps they do not produce important construction
forces in the arch (Figure 28).
After an unsuccessful project at Villeneuve sur Lot, the author
designed for the Antrenas Interchange an arch made of a polygonal
steel pipe connected to the prestressed concrete slab with a spatial
tubular truss (Figure 29). At about the same time, Jiri Strasky erected
in the Czech Republic a tubular arch bridge with a slightly different
design; and recently, Jorg Schlaich widely developed the association
of prestressed concrete and steel tubes in many different structural
designs, including an impressive arch bridge with a curved alignment
driving perfectly centered compressive forces.

FIGURE 25 The longest of the Boulonais Viaducts during erection

(photo, M. Virlogeux).

FIGURE 26 Erection of central span of Chevir Viaduct (photo,

G. Forquet).

Finally, steel elements can be incorporated into prestressed concrete structures for an easier and better design:
In some concrete cable-stayed bridges, the two rectangular edge
beams have been connected by the use of steel cross beams as replacements for concrete ones, for a lighter deck (the East Huntingdon
Bridge in the United States and the Vasco de Gama Bridge).
Ren Greisch and Jean-Marie Cremer organized steel boxes
incorporated in a concrete pylon for the anchorage of cable stays in
the Ben Ahin and Wandre Bridges. The author suggested that this
idea be reused for the Evripos Bridge in Greece and reproduced it for
the Chlon-sur-Sane Bridge (Figure 30) and laterwith a much
more sophisticated design developed with Jean-Claude Foucriat
for the Normandie Bridge (Figure 31). This is an excellent solution
that will be extensively used in the future.
Ren Greich and Jean Marie Cremer also introduced steel ties
in the box girder of the Wandre and Ben Ahin Bridges to replace the
prestressed concrete ties that existed in the Brotonne, Coatzacoalcos, and Tampa Bridges to transfer the cable tension from the upper
and central nodes of the cross section to the lower part of the webs.

FIGURE 27

Tampico Bridge in Mexico (courtesy of A. Chauvin).

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Paper No. 5B0135

FIGURE 28 Launching on concrete arch steel structure of

Morbihan Bridge (photo, G. Forquet).

Transportation Research Record 1696

FIGURE 31 Normandie Bridge: installation of first series of steel

anchorage elements on the pylon (photo, G. Forquet).

The idea was reused by Michel Placidi for the cable-stayed bridge
over the Elorn River near Brest, France.
For the Piou and Rioulong Viaducts, with Jacques Mathivat the
author reproduced the design adopted 20 years ago for the Kochertal and Erschachtal Bridges: a central box girder with two vertical
webs and with external inclined struts to support the overhanging
slab on each side, but the rectangular concrete struts were replaced
by steel tubular members, which are lighter and more elegant and
which had an attractive color (Figure 32).
In a bridge suspended from below by cables, the struts used for
the cable deviations are to be steel elements, as in the Truc de la Fare
Bridge (Figure 33).
An efficient association of steel and concrete, with the additional help of prestressing of tendons, opens new elds to engineers
creativities and imaginations.

FIGURE 29 Antrenas Bridge over A75 Motorway (photo, J.

Berthellemy, SETRA).

FIGURE 30 Steel anchorage elements incorporated in pylons of

the Chlon-sur-Sane Bridge (photo, G. Forquet).

NEW MATERIALS
A major evolution comes with the development of new materials
and with the evolution of existing materials.

FIGURE 32 Piou Viaduct on A75 Motorway: steel struts supporting

concrete top slab of wide box girder (photo, M. Virlogeux).

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Paper No. 5B0135

249

FIGURE 33 Deviation strut of Truc de la Fare Bridge (photo, M. Virlogeux).

FIGURE 34
Razel).

High-Performance Concrete

must follow after much experience has been gained, and designers
must address some possible problems:

The development of high-performance concrete is certainly a major

trend in recent years for concrete construction.
High-performance concrete and high-strength concrete, because
of the increased compactness, are major advantages for the longterm durability of concrete structures. For standard- and mediumspan bridges engineers cannot gain a large advantage (or, often, any
advantage) from increased strength; durability, however, is a major
goal for owners, and for this reason, high-performance concrete will
certainly see widespread use in the coming years.
On the condition that the concrete cover of reinforcement bars
be maintained, to take advantage of the increased compactness for
durability, the concrete cover could be reduced, perhaps by 1 cm,
because of the greater compactness of high-performance concrete.
This reduction, however, would counterbalance the effect of greater
compactness, resulting in a small advantage in terms of weight
and cost.
Greater strength can be used only for very long spans or when an
erection technique reaches some limits; for example, for the incremental launching of a box-girder bridge without intermediate supports.
In the Normandie Bridge, the deck and pylons have been built with
a high-performance concrete, the characteristic strength of which is
60 MPa; this relatively high strength has been used to fully resist
wind forces. Another application was made with the Iroise Bridge
over the Elorn River in French Brittany (Figure 34).
The wider development of high-performance concrete, however,
took place in Norway with off-shore platforms and long-span bridges.
The Skarnsund cable-stayed bridge was built with prestressed concrete with a main span of 530 m in length, and two bridges were built
by the cantilever method with record spans of 298 and 301 m: the
Raftsundet Bridge and the Stolma Bridge (Figure 35), respectively;
the central part of each of the main spans of the last two bridges has
been built with lightweight, high-strength concrete.
High-performance concrete with a characteristic strength of 60 MPa
is now quite classical, even if all contractors are not yet fully experienced with it. High-performance concrete with a characteristic
strength of 80 MPa is more frequently used; some applications are
made with high-performance concrete with a characteristic strength
of 100 MP. It is recommended, however, that progress be made in
stepsrst with experimental construction to master all practical
aspects and later with wider applicationsbefore considering higher
strengths as standard ones. In the authors opinion, strong codication

Iroise Bridge over Elorn River (courtesy of M. Placidi,

Structures built with high-strength concrete will logically receive

important prestressing forces; great care must be given to anchorage
zones to avoid high concentrations of forces and local stresses;
The thin walls permitted by high strengths can be subjected to
dangerous second-order effects; and
Ductility must be provided by longitudinal and transverse reinforcement to compensate the effects of the strain-stress relation,
which shows very short post-peak resistances.
Engineers must be prepared to react to unexpected problems that
could occur with the use of characteristic strengths of 80 or 100 MPa
or more; for example, resistance to shock and to re will have to be
analyzed.
All these arguments call for progression to higher strengths in
steps, taking advantage of the long experience already gained with
high-strength concrete in the prefabrication industry.
New Types of Concrete
The development of new types of concrete, such as the Reactive Powder Concrete developed by Bouygues and Lafarge, must be mentioned. Special mixtures with large amounts of cement, admixtures,
ne granulates, and steel (or organic) bers can lead to very high performance. The famous Sherbrook pedestrian bridge is a pioneer application of these new types of materials, but the major problem is to nd

FIGURE 35 Stolma Bridge, Norway (courtesy of Structural

Engineering International).

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new elds and new designs for their practical use. All the drawbacks
of high-performance concrete mentioned earlierconcentration
of stresses at the anchorage points and second-order effects in thin
membersbecome more stringent when the concrete strength can
reach very high values (i.e., above 200 MPa).
New elds are open to the imagination. More generally, however,
it must be considered that the unicity of traditional concrete disappears. More and more different types of concrete, with all the
related problems related to consistent code requirements, will be
available. Engineers specialized in materials will design a specic
concrete for each type of application, for example, for high strength,
high durability (compactness), low shrinkage, high tensile strength,
low level of increase in temperature during hardening to limit cracks,
watertightness, high-level re resistance, and high-level resistance to
abrasion. Materials will have ever greater importance.
Nonmetallic Materials
Nonmetallic materials (berglass, carbon bers, aramid) have attracted
much interest in recent years, and some conferences are totally devoted
to this new eld. These materials still have some negative aspects,
however:
Their costs are still very high.
They are brittle: their strengths (as their moduli of elasticity) can
be very high, but they have no plastic behavior; when the maximum
stress is reached, these materials break. This is a dangerous situation
for designers, because any local underestimation of stresses can lead
to a failure, with no possible plastic adaptation.
Finally, it is difficult to assemble prefabricated elements.
Nevertheless some pioneer bridges have been built, such as the
Aberfeldy Golf Club pedestrian bridge, designed by Maunsell and
Partners. This is a small cable-stayed bridge totally built in composites: plastic reinforced with glass bers for the deck and pylons, with
cables of Kevlar, an aramid ber in a polyethylene coating (Figure 36).
Slowly, nonmetallic materials are beginning to receive applications in the industry. There is a practical application for these new
products, however: carbon bers are increasingly used to strengthen
existing structures, efficiently replacing glued steel plates. Carbonfiber plates are especially used to strengthen existing columns
(even those with rectangular sections), with specific application to
retrofitting of structures in areas with seismic activity.
EVOLUTION OF CABLE-STAYED BRIDGES
Cable-stayed bridges have been widely developing since the 1950s.
Some recent trends are clear: the efficiencies of composite decks,
the design of very slender decks, the emergence of extradossed
bridges, the construction of bridges with multiple cable-stayed spans,
and the rapid increase in span length.
New Record Spans
The world record for cable-stayed bridges progressed very slowly
in the 1970s and 1980s, but since the beginning of the 1990s all
records have been broken in a gigantic step forward:
The Tatara Bridge (nally called the Saint-Nazaire Bridge) in
France (404 m; 1975), with an orthotropic box girder for the deck
(Figure 37);

FIGURE 36 Aberfeldy Golf Club pedestrian bridge (courtesy of P.

Head, Maunsell and Partners).

The Barrios de Luna Bridgealso called the Fernandez

Casado Bridgein Spain (430 m; 1983), with prestressed concrete
(Figure 38);
The Alex Frazer Bridgealso called the Anacis Island Bridge
in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (465 m; 1986), with a composite deck made of two steel I-shaped beams supporting a reinforced
concrete slab (Figure 39);
The Ikuchi Bridge in Japan (490 m; 1991), a composite structure with prestressed concrete access spans and with an orthotropic
box girder in the central part of the main span (Figure 40);
The Skarnsund Bridge in Norway (530 m, 1991), with prestressed concrete (Figure 41);
The Yangpu Bridge in Shangai, China (602 m; 1993), with a
composite deck made of two twin I-shaped beams with a prestressed
concrete slab (Figure 42); and
The Normandie Bridge in France (856 m; open to traffic on
January 20, 1995), a composite structure with concrete access spans
and with an orthotropic box girder in the central part of the main
span (Figure 43).
Japan, with a bridge with a concrete deck close to the abutments
to balance the loads, has the current record of 890 m (Figure 44). It
was open to traffic on May 1, 1999.
The Normandie and Tatara Bridges are the rst to enter the domain
of very long spans; previously, this designation was exclusively

Virlogeux

FIGURE 37 Saint-Nazaire Bridge (courtesy of Eiffel Constructions

Mtalliques).

Paper No. 5B0135

FIGURE 40

251

Ikuchi Bridge, Japan (photo, M. Virlogeux).

reserved for suspension bridges. This very large step forward is not
a real surprise, however:

FIGURE 38 Barrios de Luna Bridge (Fernandez Casado Bridge),

Spain (courtesy of Freyssinet).

FIGURE 39 Anacis Island Bridge (Alex Frazer Bridge), Canada

(courtesy of P. Taylor, Buckland and Taylor).

One must not forget the major German cable-stayed bridges

with unique pylons in Kln and Dsseldorf. Their great spans
302 m for the Severin Bridge in Kln, built in 1959; 320 m for the
Dsseldorf Kniebrcke, built in 1969; and 368 m for the Dsseldorf
Flehe Bridge, built in 1979provide evidence that cable-stayed
bridges with two pylons with spans that range between 600 and 700 m
can be built.
For 20 years, the competition between steel orthotropic (SaintNazaire, Ikuchi, Normandie), prestressed concrete (Barrios de Luna,
Skarnsund), and composite (Anacis, Yangpu) decks was a clear
indication that the limits were far from reached. To reduce the cost
of cables, it is necessary to reduce the weight of the deck for very
long spans and to give preference to orthotropic box girders over
600 or 800 m.
It is clear that much longer spansmore than 1000 or 1200 m
will be built in the coming decades. Two projects with such long
spans were designed long ago: for the Messina Straights by Fritz

FIGURE 41 Skarnsund Bridge, Norway (courtesy of the Norwegian

Road Administration).

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FIGURE 43

FIGURE 42

Normandie Bridge, France (photo, G. Forquet).

Yangpu Bridge, Shanghai, China (photo, M. Virlogeux).

Leonhardt and for the eastern bridge of the Storebaelt by CowiConsult, with a main span of 1200 m in length. The author was
invited to give an opinion on the last design of the latter bridge,
which looks perfectly convenient; only navigation requirements,
which called for a much longer span, prevented its construction.

FIGURE 44 Architectural view of Tatara Bridge, Japan (courtesy

of the Honshu Shikoku Bridge Authority).

Composite Decks
Composite construction is rather recent, really beginning in the
1960s. The rst cable-stayed bridges were in concrete or with a steel
orthotropic deck. Because of the compressive forces introduced into
the deck by cable-staying effects, however, it appeared to some
designers that a composite deck is an extremely good solution.
Some composite cable-stayed bridges have been built, such as the
Lixhe Bridge in Belgium by Ren Greisch and Jean Marie Cremer,
the Seyssel Bridge in France (Figure 45), which was completed in
1985, or the Kerkinstensalmi Bridge in Finland. The major step, however, was made by Jorg Schlaich with the Hooghly Bridge in Calcutta,
India (Figure 46): erection began at the end of the 1970s, and with a
span of 450 m it would have had a record length if construction had
not been so slow because of local and nancial conditions. This is why

FIGURE 45

Seyssel Bridge (photo, G. Forquet).

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Paper No. 5B0135

FIGURE 46 Hooghly Bridge, Calcutta (courtesy of J. Schlaich,

Schlaich Bergermann and Partners).

everybody considers the Alex Frazer Bridge to be the prototype of this

solution, even though it was designed several years later.

253

Composite decks must again be mentioned, with their two steel

I-shaped beams of limited depth. They can be used even for rather long
spans (up to 602 m for the Yangpu Bridge). Limits come only from
aeroelastic stability because of the rather unfavorable shape of the
deck, which calls for some aerodynamic amendments (fairings on both
sides to give some streamlining and baffles between the main beams
to divide the open void below the deck and to limit torsional wind
effects). In these bridges the main problem is the possible development
of cracks in the concrete slab; it can be prevented by prestressing the
slab when cables do not introduce high compressive forces.
Prestressed concrete slabs stiffened by two rectangular edge
beams, following Ulrich Finsterwalders ideas, have also been seen.
Very long spans can be built with such designs, such as the Penang
Bridge in Malaysia or the Dames Point Bridge in Jacksonville,
Florida (400 m; 1988). The latest application is the main bridge of
the Vasco de Gama Bridge over the Tagus River in Lisbon, which
was designed by Lusoponte, along with Campenon Bernard and
Trafalgar (Figure 47).
The greater exibility is reached with the rectangular slabs
designed by Ren Walther. The pioneer bridge is at Dieppoldsau
over the Rhine River (97 m; 1985) (Figure 48); the idea was reused
by Jorg Schlaich for the Evripos Bridge in Greece (215 m; 1993), a
rectangular 45-cm-thick slab (Figures 49 and 50).

Flexible Decks
In recent years an evolution toward exible decks for medium-span
bridges has been seen:

FIGURE 47

Since the French Code introduces extremely severe requirements

in service limit states for prestressed concrete structures, such slabs
could not be designed in France. For the Chlon-sur-Sane Bridge

Elevation and cross section of main bridge of Vasco de Gama Bridge.

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Some designers consider such exible decks to be statically unstable because of second-order effects and the reduction of rigidity produced by cracks and plastication in the concrete. It must be clear
that many load cases could not be analyzed for the Evripos Bridge
for the Greek administration because of limited computational capacities; the impression from the analyses that were performed was that
the bridge was far from unstable. More analyses with more concentrated loads than have already been applied must be developed;
but the author has the impression that those who consider stability to
be a problem are not well aware of the detailed design of these slender bridges, aimed at perfectly balancing permanent loads and thus
reducing nonlinear effects in prestressed concrete.
In addition the following are clear:

FIGURE 48

Dieppoldsau Bridge (courtesy of R. Walther).

(also called the Bourgogne Bridge), however, the author designed a

cross section with two main ribs connected by a top slab at the upper
level for road traffic and with a cantilevered slab on each side at the
lower level for pedestrians. Thus, both an open section, with easy and
economical erection, and a rather important exural inertia for a very
limited depth, less than 1 m, could be achieved (Figures 51 and 52).
Finally, the author tried to design ribbed slabs with streamlined
shapes to avoid fairings and baffles, which are considered the result
of an imperfect design: the depth of the ribs is limited and their
widths are enlarged, and the transverse cross beams that connect
them and support the top slab (and that are, preferably, steel I-shaped
beams for lighter decks) are of variable depth. A cable-stayed solution for the Ting Kau Bridge in Hong Kong was designed in such a
way, without success. It was shown to be extremely efficient for
aerodynamic stability (Figure 53).

FIGURE 49

An incorrect understanding of code requirements can lead to a

large underestimation of the real structural safety, and
The computational process can indicate instablity, even though
the structure is perfectly safe.
Great modesty is necessary in this domain. The most positive aspect
is that none of the slender bridges already built shows any sign of
unexpected second-order effects.
Extradossed Bridges
The notion of extradossed bridges is rather controversial. The concept
came from the famous Ganter Bridge, designed by Christian Menn:
prestressed concrete walls on each side of the deck work as tension
members, like rigid cable stays (Figure 54). Jacques Mathivat replaced
these walls with cables in his splendid project for the Arrt Darr
Viaduct, a project that has not been selected, unfortunately; he took
advantage of the limited pylon height to consider cables as tendons
and not as cable stays to benet from more favorable specications
and gave them the name of extradossed cables (Figure 55).

Elevation and cross section of Evripos Bridge.

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255

The original design by Christian Menn received some applications in Portugal with the Socorridos Bridge by Antonio Reis, in the
United States with the Barton Creek Bridge, and in Bahrain with the
Shaikh Isa bin Salman Bridge. Mathivats solution, however, was
widely echoed in Japan with several bridges, some rather heavy and
some elegant like the Odawara Blue Bridge (Figure 56) and the
Tsukuhara Bridge.
One must insist on specications for cables. In some of these
bridgesthose with limited span lengths and especially those with
a rigid connection between piers and deckthe stress variations
produced by traffic loads are limited, and it is acceptable to adopt
specications closer to those for tendons than those for cable stays.
For longer spans and with a superstructure simply supported on the
piers, however, the stress variations can be as high as those in cablestayed bridges, and then it would be better to limit stresses almost
as much as they are limited in cable-stayed bridges.
The last applications are a good introduction to the next section
because some bridges have a series of extradossed spans. The rst
one is the splendid Soniberg Bridge (Figure 57), designed by Christian Menn, and the others are the bridges over the Ibi and Kiso Rivers
in Japan. In the authors opinion, the last two, with spans of 270 and
275 m, are beyond the normal domain of extradossed bridges, but
they illustrate the real attractiveness of this new concept.

Multiple Cable-Stayed Spans

FIGURE 50

Evripos Bridge, Greece (courtesy of M. Stathopoulos).

A last and very new trend must be mentioned here: the design of
bridges with multiple cable-stayed spans.
Only limited applications of such a design have been made: the
Kwang Fu Bridge in Taiwan (134 m; 1978) has two main cablestayed spans, the Colindres Bridge in Spain (125 m; 1993) also has
two main successive spans, and the Macau Bridge, recently built,
also has two main cable-stayed spans, but with a double pylon, it
works like two successive, classical cable-stayed bridges (Figure 58).
The single existing bridge that truly has multiple cable-stayed spans
is the Arena Viaduct in Spain (Figure 59). It has ve cable-stayed
spans but of very limited length (105 m; 1993). There are only two
examples with longer spans: the Mezcala Bridge in Mexico (312 m;
1993), with two main cable-stayed spans (Figures 60 and 61), and the
Ting Kau Bridge, also with two main cable-stayed spans (475 m for
the longer span; 1998). As in all other bridges with two main cablestayed spans, the lateral pylons are stabilized by backstays; only the
central pylon is free; Jorg Schlaich produced the desired rigidity
by installing diagonal cables anchored at the head of the central pylon
and at the bases of the lateral ones (Figures 62 and 63). None of these
bridges answers the real problem that came with the development of
very large projects and of very long bridges: how are a series of long
cable-stayed spans built? When only one span is loaded, the corresponding cables receive an important tension variation that bends the
two adjacent pylons toward the load; if the deection is important,
the corresponding backstaysthe cables anchored in the same
pylons and in the adjacent spanslift the adjacent spans upward.
This results in important bending moments, alternatively in one
direction and then the other according to the loaded span, with the
corresponding deections (Figure 64).
Two recent projects evidence the best solution, which consists of
distributing rigidity between deck, piers, and pylons. The rst one is
for the Millau Viaduct. Between 1989 and 1993, with Emmanuel
Bouchon and Daniel Lecointre, the author developed the preliminary
design of a cable-stayed bridge, 2500 m in length, with seven pylons
and six main cable-stayed spans 320 m in length. After a rst call for

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FIGURE 51

FIGURE 52

Transportation Research Record 1696

Elevation and cross section of Burgundy Bridge over Sane at Chlon River.

Burgundy Bridge, France (photo, G. Forquet).

FIGURE 53

technical and architectural solutions, a competition was organized

between ve projects in 1995, and in 1996 the cable-stayed solution
developed with Sogelerg-Europe Etudes Gecti-Serf and the British
architect Norman Foster was selected. Finally, the bridge has a
slightly curved alignment for elegance, and the six main spans are
342 m in length. The deck is a trapezoidal box girder with a narrow
bottom ange about 4.5 m deep; the pylons have the shape of an
inverted V for a high degree of rigidity, and the piers have the shape
of a wide and thick box girder that divides into two parallel shafts in
the upper part to produce the necessary exibility to allow length
variations. Two piers are each about 235 m high (Figures 65 to 67).
In 1993 and 1994, Jean-Franois Klein, Pierre Moa, and colleagues developed a very similar solution for a bridge crossing the
Lake Geneva. The box-girder depth is very small3.50 mand the
pylons are rather rigid and are in a perfect continuity with the piers
below, which are also made of two independent columns for the
same reasons (Figures 68 and 69). Unfortunately, this project, which
took some inspiration from the preliminary Millau project and
which inspired the nal Millau project, will not be built since the
population rejected any project across the lake.

Cross section proposed for Ting Kau Bridge, Hong Kong.

FIGURE 54

Ganter Bridge (photo given by J. Strasky).

FIGURE 57

Soniberg Bridge (photo given by J. Strasky).

FIGURE 58

Elevation of Macau Bridge.

FIGURE 59

Arena Viaduct (courtesy of Freyssinet).

FIGURE 55 Mathivats project for Arrt Darr Viaduct (model by

A. Spielmann).

FIGURE 56 Odawara Blue Bridge (courtesy of A. Kasuga,

Sumitomo Construction).

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FIGURE 60

Transportation Research Record 1696

Elevation of Mezcala Bridge.

DEVELOPMENT OF HEAVY PREFABRICATION

Development of Large Projects and Concessions
One of the major trends in the recent years is the development of very
large projects, with two interesting points: the constitution of important joint ventures for erection and sometimes also for design and
later operation and the inuence of these large projects on erection
techniques and methods.
This evolution evidently comes from different factors:

FIGURE 61

Mezcala Bridge (courtesy of A. Chauvin).

FIGURE 62

Elevation of Ting Kau Bridge.

Important construction capacities make possible very large

and audacious projects that could not have been considered only
20 years ago.
In the 1970s and 1980s, many motorways, railway lines, and
other communications facilities were erected in developed countries. Only nonprotable links as well as the very large, difficult, and
costly projects remain.
As many of the simpler projects have been successfully completed, developed countries began to consider the other projects
because of their intrinsic interest in those projects but also to provide
construction companies with continuous activity. The latter aspect is
certainly a major one at a time when underemployment is one of the
major problems in developed countries, mainly countries in Europe.

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259

As it is more and more difficult to spend public money for the

erection of roads and railways, governments call for private money.
Toll motorways and links have consequently developed, but with a
new tendency for global contracts. In some recent operations, governments called for bids from joint ventures of banks and contracting companies, which were in charge of designing, building, and
operating the new facilities.

Some Examples
Some examples of recent large projects with an almost classical
organization are provided:
The Honshu-Shikoku Bridge project in Japan, which has been
the major Japanese project for the last 30 years; the Akashi Kaikio
Bridge, on the eastern route, is the longest in the world, with a main
span of 1991 m in length;
The Storebaelt project in Denmark, with the western bridge
completed 10 years ago and with the eastern bridge and tunnel
now in operation; the eastern bridge is the second longest in the
world (1624 m);
The Lantau Fixed Crossing project, related to the construction of
the new Hong Kong airport, with the Tsing Ma, Kap Shui Mun, and
Ting-Kau Bridges; the Tsing Ma Bridge has one of the ve longest
spans in the world; and
The Oresund project for a xed crossing between Denmark and
Sweden, which will be completed soon.

FIGURE 63

Ting Kau Bridge (courtesy of Freyssinet).

FIGURE 64

For most of these projects, construction contracts have been prepared and given to large international joint ventures. In some cases,
strong bodies have been specially created for the management and
control of the project, such as for the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge
Authority in Japan or for the Storebaelt and Oresund projects.

Structural behavior of a bridge with multiple cable-stayed spans.

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FIGURE 65

Transportation Research Record 1696

Elevation and cross section of Millau Viaduct.

This recent increase in project size, as well as a tendency to give

big contracts to large joint ventures (and in some cases to a unique
joint venture), is not only for bridge construction; the underground
mass transit systems in Cairo, Egypt, and Athens, Greece, are other
examples.
On some occasions, the contractors in the joint venture take a
large part of the responsibility, being in charge of site investigations,
detailed design, and many other aspects normally in the hands of the
owner or of a design office working for the owner. This evidently
produces some contractual problems when soil conditions are found
to be harder than expected, when some archeological discovery
stops erection, or when water pipes, sewers, or electricity lines are
found where they were not supposed to be.
The responsibilities of contracting companies increased even more
with some new projects in which the joint venture had to design, build,
and operate new toll bridges or motorways through concessions:

For the Second Severn Crossing between England and Wales,

Laing and GTM had to design and build the new bridge and now
operate the two road bridges and are paid through tolls.
A more recent example is the Second Tagus Crossing in Lisbon,
which has an operational organization similar to that of the Second
Severn Crossing. Trafalgar and Campenon Bernard had to design and
build the new bridge and now operate the two bridges over the Tagus
River. In this case, a part of the cost was directly paid with European
funds and the rest is received through tolls.
The system is slightly different for the Prince Edward Island
Bridge (Confederation Bridge) in Canada, an audacious project that will
connect the continent and the island by a 15-km-long bridge that will be
in the ice eld 4 months every year, with all the related problems.
Finally, the bridge crossing the Patras Straights (Rion-Antirion
Bridge) is under construction and will be completed in the coming
years.

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Paper No. 5B0135

FIGURE 66

261

Pier and pylon of Millau Viaduct project.

Such projects are producing very complex organizations: design

offices working for the contractors, independent checkers, consultants working for the joint venture as an external control, consultants
for the banks, and some possible consultants for the government.
Everyone can imagine how heavy such organizational structures are
and understand that the system can easily be counterproductive if it
is not under strong control.

Inuence of Large Projects on Erection

Techniques: Heavy Prefabrication
Large projects have a great inuence on erection techniques. Because
of their size, rapid production is the main concern; in addition, there
is the strong nancial pressure to receive rapidly money from the
tolls; on the other hand, the size of the bridges allows for the design

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FIGURE 67 Artists impression of Millau Viaduct (courtesy of

Norman Foster and Partners).

and construction of heavy and expensive construction equipment.

Logically, heavy prefabrication techniques are mainly used under
marine conditions when large oating cranes, sometimes specially
designed, can lift and install heavy loads.
This discussion begins with the application of heavy prefabrication to the erection of foundation caissons and piers.
The rst large application was for the erection of the piers of the
Storebaelt western bridge by Ballast Nedam. They were precast with
their foundation caissons, taken to the seashore, and then taken by a
specially built ship, a gigantic crane called Svanen. Each pier was then
shipped to the site and was installed by Svanen (Figure 70).
For the Second Severn Crossing, because of extremely severe
site conditions with very high tides that allowed navigation for
only a few hours per day, GTM and Laing decided to establish
each pier on a precast caisson. The precast caissons were prefabricated on the English bank. For installation, each caisson was
moved by two crawlers, installed on a barge at high tide, shipped
to the site, and finally lifted with a mobile jacket that could install
it in its final position (Figure 71). The weights of these precast
caissons ranged between 600 and 2000 Mg. The piers were later
erected from precast elements with a joint cast in situ.
The foundation caissons and the piers of the Oresund Bridge were
prefabricated and installed by the same techniques.
Heavy prefabrication and lifting, however, have mainly been used
for the erection of prestressed concrete girders. Several solutions
have been developed to precast bridges from complete spans.
The rst application was developed by Ballast Nedam for the
Bahrain Coastway. Two different types of spans were built and
installed: supporting spans that were resting on two successive piers
and that were extended by a concrete cantilever on each side and
supported spans that were simply supported between two overhanging cantilevers. The position of the joints was selected to distribute
bending moments almost as in continuous beams (Figure 72).
For the Storebaelt western bridge, the spans were made of precast cantilevers installed on the corresponding piers by the Svanen,
which could frame the pier with its two oats. Wet joints were cast
in situ between the successive cantilevers (Figure 73).
As was already explained, one of the two initial designs for the
access spans of the Storebaelt eastern bridge used precast spans that

Transportation Research Record 1696

were lifted from the piers, installed on temporary supports tied to the
piers below the lifted span, and made continuous by concreting of
the on-pier segment in situ (Figure 74).
The system has been improved for the Second Tagus Crossing,
with precast complete spans directly installed on the piers by a oating crane with two booms, reproducing the erection techniques used
in Japan for long steel bridges (Figure 75).
Finally, GTM-Ballast Nedam and their American associates
have erected the Prince Edward Island Bridge from precast cantilevers
tied to the piers. Because of the great span length (250 m), the cantilevers could not be built from key section to key section. They were
shorter, and intermediate elements were later installed to constitute a
frame every second span after two closings with a wet joint and a
drop-in span in the other bays to allow length variations. The precast
elements, more than 7000 Mg in weight, have been installed with the
ship already used for the erection of the Storebaelt western bridge. For
this occasion it had been adapted to heavier loads installed higher and
was called Swann (Figures 76 and 77).
The history of the Svanen/Swann is not nished. It has been reused
for the erection of the Oresund Bridge, installation of the foundation
caissons and piers elements, and later, placement of the huge composite spans that will carry road and rail traffic (Figure 78). These
composite spanstwo concrete slabs connected by two large steel
plane trussesare excellent examples of an association of concrete
and steel, an industrial and gigantic application of a composite as
mentioned earlier.
It is clear that these large projects open a new family of erection techniques that will be improved with experience and for
which adapted prestressing systems will be developed, as shown
earlier.

BRIDGE ARCHITECTURE
Dangerous New Trend
Recent trends in bridge construction cannot be mentioned without
paying some attention to bridge architecture. Some owners and
administrators are now considering bridges to be designed by
architects and that the role of engineers is only to compute.
This is a major mistake, but much of the responsibility for this situation is on engineers, who, too often, have built unspirited bridges
and even sometimes ugly bridges. Engineers are also guilty because
they have not understood that it is necessary to show and to explain
their designs in a world where information and communication are
more important than real capacity and competence. Finally, perhaps
as a reaction to the existing situation, some engineerseven some
very good onesaccept work on the development of illogical projects proposed by architects or themselves develop sophisticated
projects that are more curiosities than structural creations.
Engineers must
Design beautiful bridges,
Explain their designs in a way that is understood and embraced
by the authorities and the public, and
Show that they are in charge of bridge design for efficiency,
economy, and elegance.
Bridge designers must be modest, because any mistake is immediately sanctioned by cracks, accidents, or collapses of large bridges.

FIGURE 68

Elevation and cross section of Geneva cable-stayed bridge.

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FIGURE 69 Pier and pylon of Geneva cablestayed bridge project.

They must learn from experience and avoid excessive self-condence

and arrogance. This necessary modesty, however, is a handicap at a
time when personal reputation is an element of any decision; the star
system that exists among architects is a serious advantage in the present situation. Engineers must understand the decision-making
process that now exists and adapt to it.
Structure and Architecture
This section tries to show with a unique example the difference that
exists between a genuine bridge architecturewhat Nervi called
structural architecture and David Billington called structural art
and some modern fashions inspired from an intelligentsia connected
with the media and politicians. To avoid any personal implication,
this example is taken from the bridges built on the occasion of the
world exhibition in Seville, Spain. Only two of these bridges will be
described.

FIGURE 70 Storebaelt western bridge: prefabricated piers with

their foundation caisson and a pier taken by the Svanen and shipped
to the site (courtesy of Cowi-Consult).

The rst of them is the Alamillo Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge with

a unique pylon inclined backward with no backstay at all (Figure 79).
This is, of course, highly illogical and willingly provocative. The cable
tensions in the main span are partly balanced by the weight of the
pylon, through its inclination, and partly by high bending moments. It

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Paper No. 5B0135

FIGURE 72
Nedam).

FIGURE 71 Transport and installation of precast caisson for

Second Severn Crossing (courtesy of INGEROP).

has been necessary to stiffen and thicken the pylon with a composite
structure to resist these illogical forces and to build huge foundations.
In practice, it has been necessary to build the deck in a rst step
on general scaffoldings and to build the inclined pylon separately
without taking advantage of the pylon to erect the deck by the cantilever method, as is usually permitted for cable-stayed bridges. This
results in a very expensive bridge, the erection of which required a
rather long time. Each engineer who looks at it feels some discomfort. Finally, except for the loss of provocation, what would have
been the architectural drawback of the installation of backstays? The
pylon could have been more slender, and the deck could have been
built by the cantilever method for a much lower cost.

265

Erection of Bahrain Coastway (courtesy of Ballast

The Barqueta Bridge designed by Juan Jos Arenas, on the contrary, is a structure in which shapes are in full agreement with the ow
of forces. The central arch divides on each side into two branches,
with a bearing below each branch, a strut incorporated in the deck to
drive tensile forces from the deck to the support, and a horizontal tie
to brace the two struts at each bridge end. The resulting vertical reaction passes in a simple column below. It looks pure, simple, and evident (Figure 80). For its Christmas show in 1991, Spanish television
selected this bridge as an image of Spain, providing evidence of a
clear comprehension of its structural value.
This is the major conclusion of this discussion: one must give
preference to clear structures in which shapes result from the ow
of forces with a high degree of structural efficiency. One must
avoid unnecessary provocation and shapes selected only for show
to achieve an originality that is not justied by efficiency and economy. Originality without structural efficiency and elegance is
eccentricity.
It must be clear, however, that the author does not oppose architects. On the contrary, the author always works with an architect
when designing a bridge, because an architect can give something
more because of his or her knowledge of shapes, light, and shadow,

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Scale Effect
Because of these economical and moral aspects, it is clear that the
situation (and judgment) is not the same for very large and small
bridges: the additional cost of an exceptional solution that is structurally consistent but costly is evidently more limited for small
bridges; it can be more easily accepted from time to time, even if the
ratio with the normal cost is high.
Take the example of a small French bridge designed by Jean
Tonello, la Passerelle des Gures, which was built 15 years ago with
almost the same design as that for the Alamillo Bridge in Seville but
with a span of only 30 m in length. The idea was to build a very
heavy bridge with a thick deck and pylon to cohabitate with another
nearby structure, a 10-m deep, U-shaped channel designed to carry
over the motorway sand and gravel drifted by melting snow in
spring (Figure 81).
For this reason, it is clear that pedestrian bridges, which must, in
addition, carry only light loads, are favorites when designing original structures without prohibitive costs. They can be very successful, as shown by some cable-stayed or suspended pedestrian
bridges, for example, the marvellous suspended concrete slab
crossing the Neckar Valley close to Stuttgart, Germany, designed
by Jorg Schlaich (Figure 82) or the Crteil pedestrian bridge
designed by Santiago Calatrava, an arch bridge with a clear design
in which the flow of forces is logical and evident even with the
intentional structural complexity.

Unspirited Decoration of Poor Structures

FIGURE 73 Storebaelt western bridge: shipping and installation of

precast cantilever (courtesy of Ballast Nedam and Cowi-Consult).

which can complement the engineers structural knowledge, the

more global approach to structural shapes.
A good engineer must be able to select the best and most convenient
structural concept adapted to both technical and aesthetic site conditions. Generally, however, the engineer is not able to improve detailed
shapes or to produce the comprehensive harmony between the structural concept and details. A good architect can do it, on the condition
that the architect is also modest, as the engineer must be; and the architect must accept the fact that the structural system must be served and
must follow the ow of forces and take inspiration from them.
Finally, it must be mentioned that at a time when the unemployment rate is higher than 12 percent in Europe, when the populations
of countries and even continents are experiencing great misery, it
is totally unacceptable to pay two, three, or four times the normal
cost for a bridge for fashion or fantasy. It is acceptableand even
recommendedto pay an additional cost of 5 to 10 or even 15 percent
perhaps for a nicer, more agreeable structure more adapted to the
landscape; but it is a scandal to go much further when millions die
of hunger.

Even if one is extremely critical of bridges designed at a very high

cost by some well-known architects who select inefficient structural shapes for provocation or originality, one must recognize that
a few of them have some sculptural inspiration. The fashion that
they developed, however, produced the worst. Local authorities
sometimes decide to have their own design competition, often for
small bridges, and call for architects who have no structural experience at all and who have none of the gifts of the famous architects
mentioned earlier.
In the best cases they reproduce extremely classical structures
even standard bridgesand they adorn them with additional
elements that they justify by empty words, producing heavy,
illogical constructions that one cannot call bridges or structures
(Figure 83).
In the worst cases, they design ridiculous solutions that are
sometimes accepted and even supported by local authorities. One can
give the example of a project in northern France in which the selected
architect proposed absurd piers and a composite deck with two
beams, the webs of which were organized like shutter slats that disorganized the structure. When he was told that webs had to be continuous to transfer shear forces, he decidedwith the support of the
local engineerto design beams with a discontinuity in the lower
member on the supports! Finally, his project was abandoned, but
many others have not been, unfortunately (Figure 84).
Perhaps it could be considered that such considerations are out of
the classical eld of structural engineering, but it is necessary to criticize such trends; there is no reason to spend public money for
unspirited and sometimes ridiculous construction, and the worst of

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Paper No. 5B0135

267

FIGURE 74 Technique proposed for Vasco de Gama Bridge to lift completely precast span
along the piers.

them must be pointed out as evidence of an illogical orientation in

awarding design contracts.
Structures must be designed by structural engineers, preferably,
in the authors opinion, with the participation of an architect or
architects who are able to work with them and to listen to them for
a fruitful collaboration without considering that they must have the
lead on bridge design because they are famous or arelogically,
this timeleaders on other types of structures.

Diversity and Variety

As clearly stated by Jorg Schlaich several years ago, one of the
major goals of modern bridge architecture is variety or diversity.
One must avoid boring repetition of similar structures, which could
look to be standardized types by the public.
This necessary variety, however, must cope with economic
requirements. One must reach a good architecture, a perfect inte-

FIGURE 76 Computer-aided design model of Prince Edward Island

Bridge (courtesy of Dumez-GTM International).

FIGURE 75 Erection of Central Viaduct of Vasco de Gama Bridge

(courtesy of L. Machado, GATTEL).

FIGURE 77 Erection of Confederation Bridge or Prince Edward

Island Bridge (courtesy of Ballast Nedam; photo, M. Virlogeux).

Virlogeux

FIGURE 78
Nedam).

Paper No. 5B0135

Erection of Oresund Bridge (courtesy of Ballast

gration with the site, and a nice aesthetic aspect without abandoning
the classical and efficient erection techniques that alone can be done
at reasonable costs. In addition, the search for variety and diversity
must not be a drive to eccentricity, as already stated. Any bridge
cannot be an exception, a signal as demanded by too many owners or politicians. The search for variety can lead to original structures, but only on the condition that they are efficient, elegant, and
structurally logical. The design of an original structure as the major
goal would produce many curiosities that will not stand for years.
One could cite a French bridge, which was considered an architectural achievement at the time of its erection about 20 years ago but
which has recently been selected as an example of what must be
avoided. Too much is too much!
In addition, there is no need to design curiosities; there is such a
variety in bridge structures, shapes, colors, and materials that creative
engineers can easily design elegant and agreeable bridges adapted to
each site.
Many of the bridges already shown in this paper as examples of
this variety can be cited: the R Island, Chevir, lArrt Darr, Avi-

FIGURE 79

Alamillo Bridge in Seville (photo, M. Virlogeux).

FIGURE 80

269

Barquetta Bridge in Seville (courtesy of Freyssinet).

gnon, Charix, Vasco de Gama over the River Tagus, Normandie,

Tatara, Lixhe, Seyssel, Dieppoldsau, Bourgogne at Chalon-surSane, Ganter, Socorridos, Bahrain, Soniberg, Arena, Arbois,
Cognac, Vallon de Maupr, Chateaubriand over the Rance River,
Morbihan over the Villaine River, Antrenas, Ben Ahin, Wandre,
Brotonne, Piou, Rioulong, Truc de la Fare, la Barquetta, and Max
Eyth-See bridges and viaducts.
Some other bridges that have not been mentioned can be added
to this list, such as the arch bridge near Sallanches by Jean Tonello
and Pierre Xercavins (Figure 85), the Morbihan Bridge over the
Villaine River (Figure 86), the arch bridge crossing the BrnoVienna Expressway in the Czech Republic (Figure 87) or the
stress-ribbon bridge over the Sacramento River (Figure 88) by Jiri
Strasky, the Auray Viaduct (Figure 89), the Bouran Viaduct at
Rodez (Figure 90), the Kerkinstensalmi Bridge (Figure 91),
the bridge over the Isre River on the A49 Motorway by Jean
Muller (Figure 92), the Max-Eyth-See pedestrian bridge over the
Neckar or the curved Kelheim bridge by Jorg Schlaich, and the

FIGURE 81
J. Tonello).

Passerelle des Gures, French Alps (courtesy of

FIGURE 82 Max-Eyth-See pedestrian bridge over Neckar River,

near Stuttgart (courtesy of J. Schlaich, Schlaich Bergermann and
Partners).

FIGURE 84

FIGURE 83 Two examples of bridges with heavy decoration

(photos, G. Forquet).

FIGURE 85 Arch bridge near Sallanches, French Alps (courtesy

of J. Tonello).

Example of ridiculous design (photos, G. Forquet).

FIGURE 86 Morbihan Bridge over Villaine River (photo,

G. Forquet).

FIGURE 89 Bridge over the loch, Auray Viaduct (photo,

G. Forquet).

FIGURE 87 Arch bridge in the Czech Republic (courtesy of

J. Strasky).

FIGURE 90

FIGURE 88 Stress-ribbon bridge over Sacramento River (courtesy

of J. Strasky).

FIGURE 91 Kerkinstensalmi Bridge, Finland (courtesy of

R. Sormunen).

Bouran Viaduct at Rodez (photo, G. Forquet).

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FIGURE 92 Bridge over Isre River on A49 Motorway (courtesy of

Jean Muller International).

Swiss Lake pedestrian bridge in the Czech Republic by Jiri

Strasky (Figure 93).

Some Conclusions on Bridge Architecture

As a conclusion, engineers must search for structural elegance and
efficiency, for reasonable economy, for a good inscription on the

Transportation Research Record 1696

FIGURE 93 Swiss Lake Bridge in the Czech Republic (courtesy of

J. Strasky).

site, and for a high quality in shapes, colors, materials, and details
with an aim for diversity and variety.
However, they must avoid originality for originalitys sake, inefficient structures, additional decoration without any connection to
the structure and the structural behavior, and expensive solutions;
engineers must remain modest and avoid building their reputation
with others money.
Engineersand architectsmust serve the structure before
themselves.