【正文】
Construction of new bridges In the new construction sector, there is severe petition between the steel bridge and concrete bridge industries. This is because the construction of longspan and big bridges, which occupied the steel bridge industry, has declined and, consequently, the steel bridge industry tries to win jobs mainly in the construction of midspan bridges, typically with a span length of 40–80 m. As a result, many economical, rational and midspan bridges with new types of structures have been developed by both steel and concrete bridge industries. 外文翻譯原文 4 The following new types of steel bridges were developed in seeking to expand the market for new construction, to include bridges with medium span length: – Plate girder bridges made of thick steel plates, with fewer stiffeners and less welding lines for cost reduction. – Twomainplate girder bridges with PC decks. – Continuous, posite and twomainplate girder bridges. – Continuous posite boxgirder bridges strengthened by cables to increase their economical span length. – Cable stayed bridges with main girders of Hshaped steels. – Steel bridges consisting of box girders in the vicinity of the interior supports and plate girders in the other parts. On the other hand, the following new types of PC bridges have also been developed in order to face the petition from the steel bridge industry: – PC box girder bridges with corrugated steel webs. – Compound truss bridges with steel diagonal members and PC flanges. – Cable stayed PC box girder bridges with corrugated steel webs. ( 2) Other developments in steel bridge industry ( i) Repair and strengthening works against fatigue damage and cracks in the following types of bridge members: – Fatigue cracks of secondary steel bridge members. – Fatigue cracks of RC slabs. – Fatigue cracks of steel decks (some cracks along welding parts between deck plates and trough ribs). – Many cracks at ends of welding parts between the flange plates of column members and the lower flange plates of horizontal members in steel bridge piers. 外文翻譯原文 5 Repair and strengthening works of these cracks are carried out now. ( ii) Retrofitting works against increased design live load. – Maximum design live load was changed from 200 kN to 250 kN. ( iii) Retrofitting works due to revised design specifications. – For example, there was no design method for stiffened plates in JSHB about 40 years ago. (iv) Seismic retrofitting works. (v) Development of bridge management systems based on Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and asset management. ( vi) Repair and strengthening works of damage to bridge bearings and expansion joints. ( vii) Maintenance works on permeable pavements. . Maintenance Regarding the maintenance of bridges, there are many issues that can be solved by the bridge engineering munity, though there are also many political and economical problems which cannot be solved by the bridge engineering munity alone. Issues and problems of bridge maintenance are listed below: ( 1) Definition of terminology and life cycle. – Definition of bridge maintenance. – Unification of the terminology on bridge maintenance. – Decision of the life cycle of bridges, members and their parts. ( 2) Inspection and monitoring. – Labor saving of inspection for maintenance through monitoring bridges, members and their parts. – Rationalization and co