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Title	GRAND GUSSET FAILURE
Accession No	00745129
Authors	Huckelbridge Jr, A A; Palmer, D A; Snyder, R E
Journal Title	Civil Engineering Vol. 67 No. 9
Corp. Authors / Publisher	American Society of Civil Engineers ; American Society of Civil Engineers
Publication Date	19970900
Description	p. 50-52; Photos(4)
Languages	English
Abstract	In May 1996, structural failure forced the closure of twin 850 ft (259 m) arched truss bridges, each carrying two lanes of Interstate 90 traffic over the Grand River, 30 mi east of Cleveland, Ohio. A truck reportedly crossed the bridge in the left lane, causing the inner and outer gusset plates of both trusses on the eastbound bridge to buckle. Failure occurred at joint L8 of the five-span bridge, which was built in 1960. Both an engineering firm and the Ohio Department of Transportation agreed that the repair could be accomplished without shoring by attaching jacking brackets to the lower chords at joint L8 and to the dropped ends of compression members U8-L8 and U9-L8, and jacking the two apart. Then the ends of the compression members could be realigned by lateral posttensioning. Stresses and temperatures were continuously monitored for more than a week before starting repairs and throughout the work. Repairs were performed in three main phases. First, preparatory work included installation of work platforms, brackets, thread bars, jacking brackets, jackstands, and guide beams. Second, the thread bars were posttensioned to unload and reinforce tension member L8-U7. Finally, the members were jacked back into their approximate original alignment, and new gusset plates almost twice as thick as the old ones, were installed. Final stress distribution was found to be very similar to preconstruction conditions, indicating that the bridge was restored to a condition probably superior to that of its precollapse state. Crews installed stiffeners on gusset plates at other critical joints in both bridges to ensure that they would not suffer the same fate as those at joint L8.
TRT Terms	Bridges ; Buckling ; Deformation curve ; Failure ; Gusset plates ; Highway bridges ; Jacks (Mechanical equipment) ; Posttensioning ; Repairing ; Stiffeners (Plates) ; Thermal stresses ; Truss bridges ; Trusses
Geographical Terms	Cleveland (Ohio)
Other Terms	Bridge failures; Bridge repairs; Jacking; Stiffener (Bridge); Stress distribution; Thermal stress
Subject Areas	I24 Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls; I61 Equipment and Maintenance Methods; H40 MAINTENANCE, GENERAL; H25 STRUCTURES DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE
Availability	American Society of Civil Engineers Find a library where document is available Order Document: http://worldcat.org/oclc/10480594
TRIS Files	HRIS
Database	TRIS Online