Engineering Commons^™

Structural Evaluation Of The Historic John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, Wei-Xin Ren, Issam E. Harik, George E. Blandford, Michael Lenett, T. Michael Baseheart

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The John A. Roebling suspension bridge, formerly the Covington-Cincinnati suspension bridge over the Ohio River was completed in 1867 and is still serving the Northern Kentucky community. The objective of this study is to assess the bridge load capacity via the dynamics-based technique. The scope of research includes finite element modeling and modal analysis, field ambient vibration testing, finite element model calibration to field test results, and bridge load-capacity evaluation. It is demonstrated that stress stiffening of cable elements plays an important role in both static and dynamic analyses of the Roebling suspension bridge. Large deflection behavior has been shown …