Geosynthetic Reinforced Fill Material for Tennessee Bridge Approach Slab Support

Abstract

The approach slab is constructed at bridge ends to serve as a smooth transition from the highway pavement to the bridge deck. However, motorists usually complain about a sudden change in elevation (bump) at the highway/approach slab (H/S) joint that causes a potential hazard for public safety, damage to vehicles, and rider discomfort. This paper develops a finite element (FE) analysis for the differential settlement at the H/S joint when supported by a strip footing that sits on compacted layers of soil embankment with uniaxial geogrid reinforcement. A parametric study was conducted to select the optimum design that consists of five geogrid layers equally spaced within a depth of 2 $\times B$ below the strip footing, where $B$ is the width of the footing. The inclusion of geogrid reinforcement did not only enhance the ultimate bearing stress of the strip footing but also redistributed the vertical loads over a wider region of soil embankment and thus reduced settlement. A case study is also presented for modeling the performance of a preliminary design proposed by Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) for the retrofit of bridge ends. The FE analysis showed a 30%–40% improvement in the ultimate bearing stress of the strip footing when the geogrid reinforcement proposed by TDOT is extended to a depth of 1.5 $\times B$ below the footing.