Slide-In Bridge Construction Implementation Guide: Planning and Executing Projects with the Lateral Slide Method

Federal Highway Administration2013PDFTech ReportUtah. Dept. of TransportationMichael Baker, InternationalUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUnited StatesUtahBridge constructionConstruction projectsHandbooksWith approximately 25% of the Nation's 607,380 bridges requiring rehabilitation, repair, or total replacement, Slide-In Bridge Construction (SIBC) offers a cost-effective technique to rapidly replace an existing bridge while reducing impacts to mobility and safety. SIBC is an Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) technology that reduces the on-site construction time associated with building bridges. Through the Every Day Counts initiative, state highway agencies are working with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to develop this SIBC Implementation Guide. The purpose of this guide is to demonstrate the advantages of SIBC and document how state and local agencies can implement SIBC in typical bridge replacements as a part of their standard business practices. SIBC allows for construction of a new bridge while maintaining traffic on the existing bridge. The new superstructure is built on temporary supports adjacent to the existing bridge (see Figure 1-1). Once construction is complete, the road is closed, the existing bridge structure is demolished or slid to a staging area for demolition, and the new bridge is slid into its final, permanent location. Once in place, the roadway approach tie-ins to the bridge are constructed. The replacement time ranges from overnight to a week several weeks. A variation of this method is to slide the existing bridge to a temporary alignment, place traffic on the temporary alignment, and construct the new bridge in place.104