State-of-the-Art of Precast/Prestressed Concrete Spliced I-Girder Bridges

Bridge designers are continually being challenged to design structures with long spans and low initial cost. Prestressed concrete bridges in the range of 100 to 150 ft. (30 to 46 m) have become common. In most cases the girders for these structures are fabricated in lengths to accommodate the spans, and are sometimes spliced over the piers to provide continuity to resist the bending moments caused by live loads and superimposed dead loads. This type of construction is very cost-effective since the girders can be erected in one piece without falsework. This report is a discussion of techniques that have been developed to splice precast prestressed concrete girders.