• Boer, A. De
• Veen, Cor Van Der
• Lantsoght, Eva
• Hordijk, Dick

Abstract

The bridges built during the development of the Dutch road network after the Second World War are reaching their originally devised service life. A large subset of the Dutch bridge stockconsists of reinforced concrete slab bridges. This bridge type often rates insufficient according tothe recently introduced Eurocodes. Therefore, more suitable methods are developed to assessreinforced concrete slab bridges to help transportation officials make informed decisions aboutthe safety and remaining life of the existing bridges. <br/>If information about a bridge is lacking, if the reduction in structural capacity caused bymaterial degradation is unknown, or if an assessment shows insufficient capacity but additionalcapacity can be expected, a bridge might be suitable for a field test. A proof load testdemonstrates that a given bridge can carry a certain load level. In the Netherlands, a number ofexisting reinforced concrete slab bridges have been proof loaded, and one bridge has been testedto collapse. Bridges with and without material damage were tested. These bridges were heavilyinstrumented, in order to closely monitor the behavior of the bridge. Critical positions for bending moment and shear were studied.<br/>Based on the proof load tests that were carried out over the past years, a set of recommendations for the systematic preparation, execution, and analysis of proof load test results is compiled. These recommendations will ultimately form the basis of the guideline forproof load testing for the Netherlands, which is currently under development.<br/>

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy