Fundamentals Of Bridge Design Free PDF Notes

 

A bridge is a structure providing passage over an obstacle. The obstacle may be a river, valley, road or railway. The  passage may be for highway or railway traffic, pedestrian, canal or pipeline.

As the saying “Build bridges and you will have a friend” goes, bridges have a unique attribute of connecting different people. Rivers and mountains form physical barriers between people to interact, trade with one another, live and work together. For Ethiopia this holds especially true as the country is known as “The Water Tower of Africa” due to the high
rainfall we receive, which resulted in quite many big rivers dissecting the rough terrain and flowing deep in the valleys. Consequently we are composed of people speaking about 82 different languages.

Transportation network is crucial for the development and prosperity of a country. Investment by both nationals and foreigners is crucial for economic development of a country, and one of the criteria that foreign investors weigh in their investment decisions in a country is the level of development of the transportation network. Bridges provide essential
links in highways and railways at obstacles. The cost of bridges (and culverts) is a significant proportion of a highway project.

Many cities and towns are established near rivers and bridges add to the beauty of cities and towns. Bridges aid the social, cultural and economic improvements of the locations around them.

Bridges also have military strategic importance. The mobility of an army at war is often affected by the availability or otherwise of bridges to cross rivers. Military training puts special emphasis on learning how to build new bridges quickly while advancing and destroy bridges while retreating.

Bridge engineering is one of the fascinating fields in civil engineering calling for expertise in many areas: structural analysis and design, geotechniques, traffic projection, surveying, runoff calculation and methods of construction. A bridge engineer has to have an appreciation of economics and aesthetics besides ability in analysis and design.

 

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