Design of 400m net span deck-type steel truss arch bridge over

Chongqing Daning River

Yuancheng Peng and Gujian Huang
CCCC Second Highway Consultants Co.,Ltd., Wuhan, China
Wenjun Wang and Meijun Fan
School of Civil Engineering & Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China

ABSTRACT: The Daning River Bridge is the most complicated engineering on

Wushan-Fengjie Expressway in Chongqing. It is a long span hingeless deck-type steel truss arch
bridge. The main steel truss arch has a 400m net span and is contructed by a cable crane and
cable-stayed system. This paper mainly deals with the design and principal technical features of
the bridge.

1 INTRUCTION

The Daning River Bridge(Fig.1) is located in the section from Wushan of Chongqing to Fengjie
which belongs to the national important highway Hangzhou-Lanzhou line and the Whitewater
village of the Wu Gorge town in Wushan County. It steps across both the Daning River and two
sides of the mountain slopes. The bridge site belongs to the area of structural corrosion,
denudation and deep valley slope landform, and its relative height difference is 228m. The
cutting depth is so large and the undulating terrain is so severe that it is the large bridge
engineering where the landform and physiognomy are the most complex and rugged in the
Wushan to Fengjie expressway construction projects. Besides the small construction site, the
transportation condition is poor and the construction is extremely difficult.

Figure 1 : The panorama of Daning River Bridge

The Bridge site is located in the subtropical humid zone. In this area the average temperature for
many years is 18.4℃，the extreme maximum temperature is 43.1℃(in July), the extreme
minimum temperature is -9.2℃(in January), the monthly average maximum temperature is 29.5
℃, and the monthly average minimum temperature is 2.2℃. The average annual rainfall for
many years is 1049.3mm, the annual maximum rainfall is 1356.0mm, and the maximum daily
rainfall is 199.0mm. The average frost-free period is 305 days, the longest frost-free period is
335 days, and the shortest frost-free period is 275 days. The Dominant wind direction
throughout the year is the northwind, and the maximum instantaneous wind speed is 24.7m/s.
The bridge is located in the Yangtze River Small Three Gorges scenic spot which is the
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famous scenic spot, and it’s a most spectacular bridge along the expressway in the Three Gorges
reservoir area, at the same time it will be a beautiful human landscape in the Small Three
Gorges scenic area.
Main Technical Standards:
(1) Four-lane expressway large bridge;
(2) Design vehicle speed：80Km/h;
(3) Bridge deck width：24.5m;
(4) Load standard
vehicle load: highway No.one grade
earthquake action: peak acceleration of ground motion 0.05g.

2 THE DESIGN OF MAIN BRIDGE

The main bridge of Daning River Bridge which has a 400m net span is a steel truss deck-type
arch bridge, with a fixed skewback and a hingeless arch system(The layout of the bridge is
shown in Fig.2).
There are not many long-span steel arch bridges in china or abroad(Canhui Zhao and Zhixiang
Zhou 2006; Weiming Gai and Weixin Ren 2008; Canhui Zhao 2007). Among the existing bridges
there are 16 bridges whose span is over 300m, and the longest one is the New River Gorge
Bridge which was built in America in 1977 with a 518m span. The span of the discussed bridge
is 408.6m and its net span is 400m, ranking second longest span in the world and first in china.
According to the span the steel truss arch bridges in the world[4-6] are ranked as the following
table(Table 1).

Table 1 : Rank of the steel truss arch bridges in the world

Number Name of bridges Main span Period Country Type
1 New River Gorge Bridge 518m 1977 America deck-type
2 Bayonne Bridge 504m 1931 America
3 Sydney Harbor Bridge 503m 1932 Australia
4 Daning River Bridge 400m 2008 China deck-type
5 Fremont Bridge 383m 1972 America
6 Zdakov Bridge 380m 1967 Czech deck-type
7 Port Mann Bridge 366m 1964 Canada
8 Francis. Kete Wu Bridge 360m 1978 America
9 Thatcher Bridge 344m 1962 Panama
10 Levidlette Bridge 335m 1967 Canada
11 Roosevelt Lake 330m 1990 America
12 Runcorn-Widnes 330m 1961 England
13 Birchenoug 329m 1935 Romanian
14 Glen Canyon 313m 1959 America
15 Osaka new Kizu River Bridge 305m 1994 Japan
16 Queenston Lewiston 305m 1962 America

The main arch ribs of bridge adopt three pieces of truss structure which have the same truss
height of 10m, and the upper and lower chord of the truss adopt box section; the web member,
the connect to parallel and other members adopt I-shaped cross-section, using the cantilever
lifting and the cable-stayed system. The column on the arch adopt the steel bent structure, the 3
column in the transverse direction correspond to 3 pieces of truss and installing the transverse
direction cross is to improve the stability of the column. The longitudinal pitch of the column on
the arch is 27m and the column adopts the steel box structure.
The driveway of deck adopts the steel-concrete combination continuous beam which has a 16
×27m span and the 9cm asphalt concrete was placed on the top of the concrete deck.
Yuancheng Peng, Gujian Huang, Wenjun Wang, etc. 159

Figure 2 : The layout of the bridge

2.1 Skewback
The skewback of main bridge(as shown in Fig.3) adopts the monolithic reinforced concrete
structure and the bottom side is designed to be stepped, so it is good for the transmission of
force between the skewback and the foundation; Setting 3 piles as the vertical Support in the
transverse direction in front of the skewback and the location corresponds to the arch ribs，so it
can improve the stress in the front edge of skewback and the stability of side slope and it also
。
can ensure the safety of the foundation of skewback; Setting 3 tilted 10 resist-pushing piles in
the back edge of skewback, so it can improve the ability that the skewback foundation resists
the horizontal forces and reduce the displacement of skewback; some parts of the foundation in
the west bank skewback weathered seriously and the rock mass is fragmented, Adding 3 vertical
piles on the bottom of the foundation of skewback which correspond to the location of the
interface pile, so it can improve the load carrying capacity of the foundation. Both the vertical
support piles and the resist-pushing piles which are located in the skewback of either side select
the weak weathered rock as the bearing layer.

Figure 3 : The structure of the skewback

The geological condition of the foundation pit for the skewback of both sides is poor, so
mudjacking and reinforcing the area that are two meters away from both the bottom of the
foundation and the skewback foundation and the reinforcing depth is 10m.

2.2 The main arch rib

The main arch rib (as shown in Fig.4) adopts the truss structure, the height of steel truss is the
same and the height of truss is 10m(between the central line of the upper and lower chord), it is
divided into 3 pieces of arch rib in the transverse direction and the spacing of arch ribs is
determined by calculating and optimizing as 10m. The upper and lower chords of the arch ribs
adopt the same section of steel box, the height is 1.5m and the width is 1.0m, with the
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longitudinal stiffener. The segment dividing of the steel truss arch rib is controlled by the lifting
weight, and it is divided into 9 segments from the skewback to the vault, there is a total of 54
segments in the whole bridge and the maximum lifting weight of segment is 160t.
The up and down chord member’s wall thickness of steel truss arch rib which from vault to
skewback is gradualness thicken and thicken scope 30~48mm. Panel point is solid type hinge.
The arch rib web member is either joist or steel case. Fluctuate connect to parallel and
crosswise unite wait member is joist. The thickness of steel plate is 12mm~20mm. Between
member and solid type hinge is butt welded.

Figure 4 : the structure of truss arch rid

2.3 arch upper column

The piers of arch upper column adopt steel bent structure, three transverse direction correspond
with arch rib. The uprights adopt box section, based on the require of stability, the longitudinal
direction size of bridge is 1.7~0.9m and the transverse direction is 1.0m. The intercolumniation
of columns LZ1～LZ6、LZ10～LZ15 set the cross riders, to improve lateral stability. The slab
of column is 16mm, with longitudinal direction ribbed stiffener.

2.4 bridge road driveway

The driveway of bridge road adopts steel-concrete composite beams (as shown in Fig.5), which
is multi-span continuous beams and the span is 27m. The depth of the composite welded steel
H-beams is 1.7m, which the thickness of upper wing is 16mm and the thickness of lower wing
is 26mm. Owing to the lower wing slab is in compression the point of support, adding
building-up steel plates increases his bending capacity.
The thickness of the steel H-beams stalk is 16mm, which adding a beam of vertical ribbed
stiffener at intervals of 2.25m and adding a beam of steel transverse beam at intervals of 6.75m.
The panels of the reinforced concrete bridge are preformed in segment, with 12cm thickness.
After hoisting, steel fiber concrete bridge slab and wet connector are formed as a whole by the
way of casing in place, steel beam and reinforced concrete bridge slab form the composite beam
using the stud shear connector layout of the wet connector. The spacing of the stud depends on
the number of shear. Concrete transverse beam suppose is on the end of the piers with expansion
joint.

2.5 the painting dressing of steel structure

Steel truss arch ribs, columns and the uncased surface of the bridge road longitudinal beam
adopt the painting dressing to long acting preservatize. The preservative painting dressing
artwork and claim: the cleaning treatment of surface get to without oil, dryness done, which the
Yuancheng Peng, Gujian Huang, Wenjun Wang, etc. 161

scale of the descale and blasting is Sa2.5, inorganic zinc-rich primer 80um, fluororesin finish
coat two degree 35+35 um, so the thickness of the chief dry film is 290um.

Figure 5 : bridge road of multi-span continuous steel-concrete composite beams

3 TECHNICAL FEATURES
3.1 the largest super-long span deck-type steel braced arch bridge in the country
With the main span of the bridge 400m, among all the deck-type steel braced arch bridges, it
ranks after New River Gorge Bridge (main span 518m) in the United States and ranks second in
the world of similar bridge type, first in China.

3.2 foundation of large-scale complex abutment

The geological condition of the abutment foundation pit is complicated, which exists weak
geological problems in various degrees. The abutment substrate in the east coast (Wushan shore)
belongs to weak weathering breccia, which means the compression modulus of surrounding
rocks is small while the deformation is large; the rocks of the abutment in West Bank (Fengjie
shore) is crushed with uneven weathering, some local areas are seriously weathered, so the
bearing capacity is low. The foundation of abutment is complex designed in accordance with
interaction mechanism of pile—abutment—soil, which solve the design challenges of the thrust
arch in the weak geological conditions.

3.3 the first full-welded super steel braced arch bridge

The main span of the bridge adopts full-welded type, namely the bars and beam-chips are
welded and manufactured in the factory, the sub-beam chips are transported in segment, and
lifted and welded on the site. The truss belongs to whole node, the outer nodes are butt welded
and assembled, the maximum thickness of on-site butt welding plate is 48mm, the control of
welding deformation and welding residual stress is the key to affect the arch axis linear and
structure anti-fatigue properties.

3.4 the bridge deck system of steel--concrete composite structure is pioneered in the domestic
The large-span arch bridges in the domestic mainly adopt precast concrete beam (plate), which
exists many major drawbacks, this is especially true for large-span deck-type arch, the over
heavy bridge floor system, which is located at the highest point of the bridge structural system is
unfavorable for the force and stability of the arch rib. The bridge first adopts steel--concrete
multi-span continuous complex beams as the bridge floor system, the novel structure
significantly improves the force state of the arch rib and foundation, meanwhile, the use of
concrete slab directly as bridge deck avoids the technical problem, that is the use of steel bridge
floor is easily damaged, thus achieving a better overall economic efficiency.

3.5 the construction adopts large-scale stentless cable crane system

The arch ribs are lifted and installed in accordance with its fragment and segment by the use of
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stentless cable, which is wholely horizentally moved to separately install three arch ribs. The
use of long-span (432m), large-tonnage (265t), large segments (26m length, 10m height), and
the application of cable hoisting system is advanced and innovative.

4 CONCLUSION

This article introduces the design concept and structural feature of Daning River Bridge The
bridge span, structural form, or the construction difficulty are first encountered in the
mountainous area of the country, and thus the consideration and treatment methods of those
problems are challenging, exploring, and deserved to improve and deepen in the practice. With
the extension of highways in mountainous areas, it is ecpected that there will be more bridges of
this type.

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Arch Bridges, Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology(Urban Science Edition)
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Canhui Zhao, 2007. In-plane ultimate bearing capacity analysis of deck-type steel braced arch bridge,
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