Researchers
Principal Investigator
David White
Co-Principal Investigator
Wayne Klaiber
About the research
To date there have been few investigations of the substructures in low volume road bridges. Steel sheet piling has potential for providing an economical alternative to concrete bridge abutments, but it needs investigation with regard to vertical and lateral load resistance, construction methods, and performance monitoring. The objectives of this project are to 1) Develop a design approach for sheet pile bridge abutments for short span, low volume bridges. 2) Formulate an instrumentation and monitoring plan to evaluate performance of sheet pile abutment systems. 3) Understand the cost and construction effort associated with building the sheet pile bridge abutment demonstration project.