A Study on Highway Live Load for Hong Kong

Traffic live load models are developed for highway bridges in Hong Kong. The load models are based on the available data obtained from various Weigh-in-Motion stations installed in Hong Kong. The important parameters that affect the formulation of a loading model are identified and considered one by one. The statistical distributions of these parameters are investigated using several stochastic processes. The results obtained illustrate that the distributions of Hong Kong traffic vehicles are of three basic distributions, namely Inverse Gaussian, Lognormal and Gamma distributions. Maximum load is calculated by simulating various simply supportcd span momcnts and shears caused by extreme daily truck traffic. The highway live models for bridge designs in Hong Kong are then derived. Extreme l20-ycar loads are determined by the statistieal analysis of 10 years records in Hong Kong. Multiple presence effect is considered in dual lane traffic. The reliability indices for bridges designed using the proposed live load are also calculated