Lateral Sliding of Multispan Steel Bridges

Abstract

As the urban infrastructure in the cities around the world becomes more complex and congested, engineers are more often required to design and construct major structures under severely constrained physical and environmental conditions. To deal with these constraints, an increasing number of projects in recent years have involved the construction and subsequent sliding of bridges, including the lateral sliding of major, multispan steel bridges. Because multispan continuous steel bridges are relatively lightweight, robust, and resistant to any possible inadvertent damage from major sliding operations, they are particularly well-suited to dealing with the constraints in a cost-effective manner. Several such projects have been completed in Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere in the world. These and other related steel bridge projects are described that have successfully used complex, computer-controlled, multitrack lateral bridge slides.