Innovative Box girder having Footpath at Bottom of Box girder by Cantilevering Soffit slab

Abstract

<p>Innovative structural forms for medium span bridges are a challenging effort for bridge design engineers especially in built-up area locations, where social impact plays a crucial role. Box girders are flexible forms compared to conventional ‘I’ girders, in the sense that they can have curved plan as well as varying shape of cross sections. Padaharam bridge at Alappuzha district of Kerala state is such a bridge planned, designed and under construction with superstructure having walkways/pedestrian way underneath cantilevering box girder. This ensued less land acquisition, environmental and social impact. In this paper, the planning, design, and construction of this bridge are introduced. The cross-sectional features of the box girder, the structural analysis of the superstructure and its constructional techniques are discussed in this paper.</p>