Description: R-2583 - MADISON COUNTY Location: Bridge #328 over French Broad River.
Item(s) of Interest: Box Beams with unusual hold-down details. Currently preparing to pour a concrete overlay with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) rebar. An unusual end bent with crash wall on sheet piles was designed for the town end of the bridge. The sheet piles contained 0.2 % Cu. A 12" utility water line will be attached to the outside of the barrier rail.
Observations and Points of Discussion:
Bent caps appeared unusually deep.
There were questions about the development of 'S' bars in the Texas rail.
The geometry of the intersection at the end of the bridge opposite from the town raised several issues including:
Sight distances at the landing of the two bridges
Difficulties of shop curving wrap-around guardrail.
Difficulties in forming the curved decorative Texas barrier rail so that it could tie into the guardrail.
Some box beam units appeared to have excessive sweep.
Emphasized the need to ensure yard fit-up and match marking the box beam units.
Order of placing box beam units can influence the size of the gap between units:
Placing the center unit and then placing adjacent units working to the exterior units, or
Placing one exterior unit and then placing adjacent units up to the opposite exterior unit.
Consider eliminating retainer blocks since dowels act as lateral movement restraints.
NC DOT
NC DOH
NC GOV
