Renewal of old existing small road bridges with modular system – CASE STUDY Manarau BRIDGE - Economical Bridge Solutions based on Innovative Composite Dowels and Integrated Abutments - page 118

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

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Keywords: EcoBridge, VFT-WIB ® , precast composite slab, integral bridge, composite
dowel, modular solutions.

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.

1. Introduction

Rehabilitation and maintenance of existing steel constructions, especially steel bridges, is
one of the most important present problems. During service, bridges are subject to wear. In
the last decades the initial volume of traffic has increased. Therefore many bridges require a