To reflect the findings in research, new products or changes in design concepts,

revised portions of
the manual, or addendum, will be issued to maintain a current Bridge Design Manual.
The agency
or its representative using this manual is responsible for compliance with not only
the Manual but
any addendums.
The Office of Structural Engineering offers a web page, the Manual and addenda at:
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/se/
Any comments or suggestions you may have to better the manual should be addressed
to the Ohio
Department of Transportation, Office of Structural Engineering, 1980 W. Broad
Street, Columbus,
Ohio 43223.
In this manual Department shall refer to the Office of Structural Engineering
or its
representatives including any district office production Administrator responsible
for plan review
or any consultant contracted by the Department to perform bridge plan review. Where
the Office
of Structural Engineering is specifically referenced in the manual only the ODOT
Office of
Structural Engineering shall be the governing authority. The user of this manual
(i.e. Consulting
engineers, ODOT District Personnel, County and other governmental agencies) will be
referred to
as the Design Agency. The owner of the project will be referred to as the
Appointing Authority.
Unless otherwise noted, the design values, policies, practices, etc. that are
established in this Manual
are considered guidelines to promote uniform, safe and sound designs for bridges
and structures in
the State of Ohio. Deviation from these guidelines does not require formal approval
from the
Department; however, during the normal staged review process, the appointing
authority may require
the design agency to justify or otherwise seek recommendation from the Office of
Structural
Engineering when deviation is necessary.
The user of this Manual should be fully familiar with the AASHTO Standard Design
Specifications
For Highway Bridges including all issued Interim Specifications, the ODOT
Construction and
Material Specifications, and Office of Structural Engineering Standard Drawings and
Design Data
Sheets, along with the contents of this Manual.
The practicability of construction should be considered with reference to each
detail of design. This
applies particularly as new ideas are considered.
Where complete description or instruction is not provided in the Construction and
Material
Specifications, the description or instruction should be shown on the plans, but
care should be taken
to insure clarity both from a structural and contractual viewpoint.
101.2 TABLE OF ORGANIZATION
An organizational chart for the various sections in the Office of Structural
Engineering and a list of
bridge contacts is available on our website at http://www.dot.state.oh.us/se/.
102 PREPARATION OF PLANS
Drawings should be so planned that all details will fall within the prescribed
border lines. All detail
views should be carefully drawn to a scale large enough to be easily read when
reduced to half size.
Views should not be crowded on the sheet.
The scale of the views on the drawings should not be stated because in making
reproductions of the
drawing the prints may be either the same size as the drawing or half-size.
A North Arrow symbol should be placed on the Site Plan, General Plan and all plan
views.SECTION 100 GENERAL INFORMATION January 2003
1-2
Elevation views of piers and the forward abutment should be shown looking forward
along the
stationing of the project. The rear abutment should be viewed in the reverse
direction. Rear and
forward abutments should be detailed on separate plan sheets for staged
construction projects or for
other geometric conditions that produce asymmetry between abutments.
When describing directions or locations of various elements of a highway project,
the centerline of
construction (survey) and stationing should be used as a basis for these directions
and locations.
Elements are located either left or right of the centerline and to the rear and
forward with respect to
station progression. [e.g. rear abutment; forward pier; left side; right railing;
left forward corner]
Sheets in the bridge plans should be numbered in accordance with Figure 109.
For each substructure unit, the skew angle should be shown with respect to the
centerline of
construction or, for curved structures, to a reference chord. The skew angle is the
angle of deviation
of the substructure unit from perpendicular to the centerline of construction or
reference chord. The
angle shall be measured from the centerline of construction or reference chord to a
line perpendicular
to the centerline of the substructure unit or from a line perpendicular to the
centerline of construction
or reference chord to the centerline of the substructure unit.
In placing dimensions on the drawings, sufficient overall dimensions will be given
so that it will not
be necessary for a person reading the drawings to add up dimensions in order to
determine the
length, width or height of an abutment, pier or other element of a structure.
In general, the designer should avoid showing a detail or dimension in more than
one place on the
plans. Such duplication is usually unnecessary and always increases the risk of
errors, particularly
where revisions are made at a later date.
If, because of lack of space on a particular sheet, it is necessary to place a view
or a section on
another sheet, both sheets should be clearly cross-referenced.
Abbreviation of words generally should be avoided. Abbreviations, unless they are
in common use,
may cause delay and uncertainty in interpreting the drawings. If abbreviations are
used, a legend
should be provided to explain the abbreviation.
Plan sheet size to be used is 22" x 34" [559 mm x 864 mm]. Margins shall be 2" [50
mm] on the left
edge and 1/2" [15 to 20 mm] on all other edges.
Where a project includes more than one bridge, plan preparation economies may be
obtained by
coordination of the individual plans. Where general notes are numerous and
extensive, time can be
saved by using a sheet of notes common to all bridges, or by including all of the
common notes on
one bridge plan and referring to them on the other bridge plans. The same applies
to common
details.
102.1 BRIDGE DESIGN, CHECK AND REVIEW REQUIREMENTS
The Department requires bridge design computations and bridge plans be made and
prepared by anSECTION 100 GENERAL INFORMATION January 2003
1-3
experienced bridge design engineer, the designer; all bridge computations be
independently verified
by an experienced engineer, the checker; and all bridge plans be reviewed by an
experienced
engineer, the reviewer. The design agency shall perform the required checks and
reviews prior to
submitting prints to the Department for review.
All outside agencies performing bridge design work for the Department shall be pre-
qualified
according to the requirements contained in the Departmental document Consultant
Prequalification
Requirements and Procedures which is on file with the Office of Contracts. Work
shall be
completed by those individuals upon whose experience the classification level of
the design agency
is based. The initials of these same individuals shall be placed in the appropriate
spaces in the title
block signifying that they performed the work.
The designer shall be responsible for preparing a design that follows sound
engineering practice and
conforms to AASHTO, ODOT and other specifications and manuals. The designer shall
also be
responsible for preparing an accurate and complete set of final bridge construction
plans.
The checker shall be responsible for ensuring correctness, constructability and
completeness of the
plans and calculations and adherence to pertinent specifications and manuals. The
checker shall
perform and prepare a set of separate, independent calculations verifying all
stations, dimensions,
elevations and estimated quantities.
The checker shall independently check all structural calculations to assure that
the structural theory,
design formulae and mathematics used by the designer are correct. The intent is not
to produce two
separate sets of structural calculations. However, for atypical designs, fracture
critical components,
and situations where the designers theory is unclear or questionable, the checker
shall perform and
prepare a set of separate, independent calculations. The checker and designer shall
resolve all
discrepancies and the final product shall reflect mutual agreement that the design
is correct.
The checker shall verify all structural calculations performed by computer analysis
by preparing
independent input for comparison with the designers input. The checker shall
perform an
independent analysis of the output and agree with the designer on the final design.
The design agencys reviewer is responsible for the overall evaluation of the plans
for completeness,
consistency, continuity, constructability, general design logic and quality.
Design and check computations shall be kept neat and orderly so they may be easily
followed and
understood by a person other than the preparer.
102.2 MANUAL DRAFTING STANDARDS
102.2.1 GENERAL
A. All lines and lettering shall be dark and opaque. All lines and lettering shall
be on the front face
of the drawing, whether original or reproduced.
B. Plan sheets submitted to the Department shall be of extremely good quality on
reproducibleSECTION 100 GENERAL INFORMATION January 2003
1-4
mylar.
102.2.2 LETTERING STANDARDS
A. All lettering shall be Braddock No. 5 size (upper case 5/32" [4 mm] in height),
or larger.
B. Lettering within lined areas, such as quantity box, should at no time come in
contact with any
of these lines.
C. Letters should be properly spaced so that a crowded condition does not exist.
102.2.3 MANUAL DRAFTING LINE STANDARDS
A. "0" (Rapidograph pen size) (decimal width of 0.4 mm) is minimum and can only be
used for
dimension lines, X-hatching and index map.
B. All other lines and lettering shall be a minimum of "1" (Rapidograph pen size)
(decimal width
of 0.5 mm).
C. Individual lines shall be of uniform weight and density.
D. 1/16" [1.5 mm] is the minimum distance between two or more adjacent lines, even
though an out
of scale condition might exist.
102.3 COMPUTER AIDED DRAFTING STANDARDS
102.3.1 GENERAL
The purpose for this section of the manual is to provide CADD standards for bridge
design plans.
All bridge design plans submitted electronically for review, filing and archiving
purposes shall
conform to the specifications contained in this manual. Users may reference the
ODOT Location &
Design Manual, Volume Three, for supplemental CADD information not contained
herein.
The use of Computer Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) is the preferred method of
preparing
construction plans for the Department. ODOT has adopted MicroStation as its
standard CADD
software package. All CADD information to be submitted or exchanged shall be in a
MicroStation
DGN file format. ODOT will not be responsible for translating data to or from
different formats.
102.3.2 INTERNET
For information regarding ODOT bridge related specifications and standards, the
Office of Structural
Engineering has provided a website. The address is:
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/se/
The standard bridge drawings provided on the web site are solely for the users
convenience.
Official drawings can be obtained through the Office of Contracts.SECTION 100
GENERAL INFORMATION January 2003
1-5
102.3.3 STANDARD CADD FILES
When electronic bridge plan files are submitted to ODOT, each sheet of the design
plans should be
contained in its own separate design file.
102.3.3.1 DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
The structure for the project directory illustrated in section 1206.4 of the ODOT
Location and Design
Manual, Volume Three, shall be amended as shown in Figure 102. The amended
directory allows
for construction projects with multiple bridges and facilitates the archiving of
bridge plans since the
use of the Structural File Number (SFN) is compatible with the bridge inventory
archiving system.
102.3.3.2 FILE NAMING CONVENTION
The following file naming convention shall be used in conjunction with the project
directory
structure. This convention was developed to provide comprehensive file names to
facilitate plan
review and archiving of bridge plans in electronic format.
File names should consist of eight (8) characters following these guidelines:
ccnnnaab.dgn
cc is a two (2) letter code identifying the county name. See Figure 103.
nnn is a three (3) digit code identifying the route number. For four digit route
names that include
a letter (i.e. 176J), the letter shall be dropped.
aa is a two (2) letter code designating the bridge plan sheet type. The following
codes should be
used:
sp - Site Plan
gp - General Plan
gn - General Notes
eq - Estimated Quantities
pc - Phased Construction Details
fp - Foundation Plan
ra - Rear Abutment
fa - Forward Abutment
pi - Piers
ts - Transverse Section
sd - Superstructure Details
md - Miscellaneous Details
ex - Expansion Device Details
rl - Reinforcing Steel ListSECTION 100 GENERAL INFORMATION January 2003
1-6
b is a one (1) digit code (1-9) identifying the number of drawings of the same
type. If additional
sheet numbers are required after 9", letters (a-z) can be used to reach a maximum
of 35 sheet
numbers.
Example: cu077pi2.dgn
This file name represents a second pier sheet for a project in Cuyahoga county on
route 77.
102.3.3.3 SEED FILES
A seed files is a template used to create new MicroStation design files. The
following seed file may
be used for the preparation of bridge design plans and is available on the Office
of Structural
Engineering web site:
brseedd.dgn
[mbrseedd.dgn]
102.3.3.4 WORKING UNITS
Master Units (MU) = ft
Sub Units (SU) = 12 in per ft
Positional Units (PU) = 1000 PU per in.
Master Units (MU) = mm
Sub Units (SU) = 10 per mm
Positional Units (PU) = 1000 PU per SU
102.3.3.5 TEXT
Text sizes have been defined to ensure uniform legibility of all plotted CADD
drawings. Four text
sizes shall be used when preparing bridge plans: Normal, Subtitle, Main Title and
Title.
Normal text size shall be used for all dimensions, plan notes and general notes.
Subtitle text size shall be used when a secondary description is included beneath a
Title or Main
Title.
Main Title text size shall be used when titling primary plan components. Examples
include: Plan,
Profile, Elevation, Transverse Section, Framing Plan, Camber Diagram, Screed Table,
General
Notes, Estimated Quantities, etc.SECTION 100 GENERAL INFORMATION January 2003
1-7
Title text size shall be used when titling secondary plan components. Examples
include: Section,
Legend, Notes, Details, etc.
Text shall be all Capital Letters.
The text sizes defined in the table below, refer to the size of the text on a
finished 22" X 34" [559
mm x 864 mm] standard plan sheet.
In general, the text line spacing shall be equal to the text height. The line
spacing between
paragraphs shall be three times the text height.
ODOT standard font 84 shall be used. This is a slanted, mono-spaced font with upper
and lower
case letters and fractions.
ODOT standard font 85 shall be used. This is a slanted, proportional metric font
with upper and
lower case letters, Greek symbols, and some generic drafting symbols.
Text Type Wt. Text Size
Normal 1 0.125" [3.2 mm]
Subtitle 1 0.14" [3.6 mm]
Title 2 0.175" [4.5 mm]
Main Title 2 0.2" [5.0 mm]
102.3.3.6 ELEMENT ATTRIBUTES
To ensure uniformity and legibility of all plotted CADD drawings, the following
line types, defined
below, have been established for use in bridge plans: Object, Hidden, Construction
(Long),
Construction (Short), Centerline (Long), Centerline (Short), Existing, Dimension
and Rebar. Lines
that carry the Long designation should be used in details that are large in
scale. Short designated
lines should be used in details that are small in scale.
A. Object - Line representing the perimeter of a proposed object. (ie. Pier,
Abutment)
B. Hidden - Line representing an object edge not seen in the view.
C. Construction - Line used to represent a construction joint.
D. Centerline - Line used to represent the centerline of an object, construction,
etc.
E. Existing - Line representing existing objects to be incorporated into the
proposed work.
F. Dimension - Line type to be used for the dimensioning of an object.
G. Rebar - Line used to represent reinforcing steel bars.