Back in July of 2009 I rated a rigid frame in Providence RI which carries Memorial Boulevard over a pedestrian underpass. The frame spans 40 feet allow foot traffic to the Providence and Woonsaquatucket River where each year the Waterfire festival is held. The frame was constructed in 1994 and has several unique features.
The reason I remembered this bridge is from reading tallbridgeguy's post on Green Bridge and Landscaping, where he mentions the positives of adding flower plants and trees along with negatives freeze/thaw (a big problem in New England), drainage, extra load and maintenance.
Along with planters the bridge also has a glass atrium which allows light to the underside of the frame and decorative tiling along the legs of the frame.
These decorative accents help create an aesthetically pleasing bridge which is the goal for both a consultants and a necessity for clients when it comes to pedestrian traffic. When it comes to this bridge tho these accents can cause problems down the road. As most would suspect the glass atrium now has several broken panes, the tiles do not allow for inspection of the legs and the underside of the roof below the plants have cracking with efflorescence, incrustation and stalactites.
The rating of the concrete rigid frame was performed using influence lines to determine the maximum live load effects and we treated the rigid frame's support conditions as pinned-pinned.
The architectural “waffling” on the underside of the rigid frames was not considered as a structural component and was not taken into account as part of the section properties.
2 comments:
Could you, please, tell me where exactly is this pedestrian underpass and what is its name? thanks a lot
It is located across from the Capital Grill in Providence RI
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