Engineering Commons^™

Detailed Study Of Integral Abutment Bridges And Performance Of Bridge Joints In Traditional Bridges, Brooke H. Quinn

Doctoral Dissertations

Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs) are jointless bridges in which the superstructure is cast monolithically with its substructure. Eliminating expansion joints from the superstructure reduces corrosion of bridge elements that typically result from leaking joints in traditional bridges. IABs have proven to be cost effective for both construction and life-cycle analysis. As a result, they are the standard single span highway bridge of choice by the majority of State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) across the country. Despite the widespread use of these bridges, there are no uniform guidelines in place. Factors such as pile orientation, design assumptions, maximum span length, skew …