Composite Bridges In Sadc. Keve River Bridge

ABSTRACT:

To build composite bridges in countries belonging to the SADC – Southern Africa Development Community – is totally different from building in Europe. In these countries there are specific difficulties that constrain the final solution, such as: 1) difficulty in finding skilled labor for welding works; 2) the high cost of the solution when it is imported from foreign countries; 3) the high cost of formwork; and 4) qualified hand labor for the erection process.
Consequently, VESAM has developed a solution with the objective of adapting the traditional composite bridge construction in Africa, thus creating a truly rapid assembled bridge, with a longer lifetime and lower production cost.
This project is complex and involves constructive changes, through development of new structural solutions and the implementation of a new approach to the structural health monitoring and maintenance procedures.
Some of these innovations, developed by VESAM, have been incorporated into the Keve River Bridge (finished in March, 2014) in Angola, Fig. 1, and are herein described: 1) splice connections with composite action; 2) use of corrugated steel deck for the execution of the slab; and 3) border girder with direct incorporation of guards.

AUTHORS
Filipe Santos ¹, Pedro Santos¹, Luis Simões da Silva³

¹ VESAM Engenharia SA, Zona Industrial de Cantanhede, Lote 69, Cantanhede, Portugal
³ ISISE, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luis Reis Santos, Coimbra, Portugal | luisss@dec.uc.pt

Paper presented in EUROSTEEL 2014, September 10-12, 2014, Naples, Italy