Design, Construction, and Maintenance of Bridges: A Critical Evaluation

a) Critically evaluate design concepts and demonstrate the ability to carry out appropriate design procedures for concrete, steel and masonry bridges.

b) Critically evaluate failure modes and types of defects for concrete, steel and masonry bridges.

c) Carry out data collection through fieldwork.

d) Critically evaluate inspection, test data and propose appropriate maintenance/strengthening methods

e) Demonstrate awareness of health and safety issues and how they may be addressed the during design, construction and maintenance stages.

Your task is to write a report (limit of 4000 words plus appendices), which comprises two parts. Details of the content of these parts are given below

In this part, you are asked to focus on designing a specific bridge and exploring the issues that need to be considered regarding the strategic planning, design, construction, and maintenance of the bridge. You will either need to select a bridge in the region where you work or use an example provided on the module site. There is no restriction on the project's size, although it is recommended that you choose a problem that is not too ambitious considering the time allowed for this exercise (The overall time available to you on the module is 150 hours of work approximately).

Under the following headings, evaluate the issues that have been considered for your chosen bridge, or need to be considered to meet the design standard and optimize the project's effectiveness.

• Design standard

• Secondary functions of the bridge

• Environmental considerations

• Loading on structure

• Possible modes of failure

• Structural design (i.e., structural elements)

• Materials –Type of material being used

• Foundations conditions – what are they, are they suitable

• Need for temporary structures

• Appreciation of policy on sustainability

• Best practice in construction – lean construction, disposal of waste, respect for people and the local environment, etc.

• Measures to aid operation – safe access and egress to parts requiring maintenance of the structure

• Ease of future operation

• Ease of repairs

• Maintenance schedules – asset management plans etc.

• Measures to aid dismantling

• Reuse and repurposing of construction materials

This list is not exhaustive but should help prompt your minds as to what issues might be considered in your report.

The suggested word count for this part is 3000 - 3500 words. Given below is a suggestion of the contents of the report. The report will be in the form of a narrative or commentary explaining what you took into account when making decisions during the design process.

Site analysis - very brief overview of the location, access issues, and discussion on the specific aspects that influenced the bridge choice and design;

The reasons for choosing the proposed bridge solution including how it integrates into the whole scheme;

The essential stages in the production process to achieve the detailing and specifications of the design for the loading cases.

The engineering behaviour inherent for the bridge;

The design procedures adopted to establish the technical solution including any significant aspects of the philosophy behind the codes (Eurocodes) and standards used;

An appraisal of the sustainability and health and safety aspects of the design – including Designers H&S risk assessment.

The input values which are used in both the analysis and design calculations.

The output values from the design calculations confirming the solution.

A discussion on how the bridge is to be constructed, operated, maintained and ultimately dismantled.

In this part, you are asked to report back on the findings of a fieldwork exercise in which you have inspected two existing bridges.

For the bridges that you have allocated, provide a detailed report that summarizes your findings on their condition and recommendations to the owner of the bridges as to what remedial works may need to be done.

The suggested word count for this part is 500 - 1000 words.