Advances and Trends in Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation – Zingoni (Ed.

)
© 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-58472-2

Buitengragt structural steel pedestrian bridge: A continuous asymmetrical

box girder

J.R.B. Anderson
Vela VKE Consulting Engineers as part of Foreshore Freeway Consultants

ABSTRACT: Using over 3500 welded steel plates the asymmetric box girder of the Buitengragt structural
steel pedestrian bridge is an unconventional form that responds to the challenges of its location. The bridge was
designed as a simple but visually bold line across the busy urban back drop of Cape Town’s City Centre. Its
fabrication required a high degree of dimensional accuracy and carefully planned welding procedures to ensure
the fit up of the plated sections. Its location, partly over the roof of a buried parking garage, influenced the deck
design and required the development of bespoke foundations details.

1 INTRODUCTION

FIFA’s 2010 World Cup Soccer Tournament has ener-

gized many public transport initiatives in the City of
the Cape Town. The Buitengragt structural steel pedes-
trian bridge was one of those. Situated across the main
arterial road into the City Centre, the bridge’s concep-
tual design was subject to a rigorous review by the
client, the City of Cape Town. This ensured the stake-
holder’s functional, technical and aesthetic standards
were met.
The structure’s position presented a number of chal-
lenges to the design team. Partly founded on top of a
buried parking garage and partly on land reclaimed
from the sea, the foundation design required some
innovative ideas. Integrating the bridge into a narrow
corridor between two of the City’s main hotels also Figure 1. Photograph of box section during the main span
influenced the design outcomes. The need to erect the erection.
bridge in a confined space whilst limiting the noise by the spacing of columns on the underground parking
impacts was an unavoidable constraint. garage.
A structural steel asymmetric box girder was not an
obvious choice of structural form. It did, however, offer
a number of specific benefits. Firstly the use of struc-
2 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
tural steel significantly reduced the dead weight of the
bridge, which had to be 4.0 m wide. This was impor-
2.1 Deck section
tant considering the founding conditions. The use of
an up-stand beam was necessary to keep the level of The localised deformation of an asymmetrically sup-
the walking surface as low as possible. In so doing ported bridge can disturb pedestrians, even though
the length of the bridge was limited to fit the avail- it may be structurally irrelevant (Adao Da Fonseca,
able space. Because it was necessary for pedestrians 2007). The development of the deck section therefore
to access the structure along its length, a closed box took its direction from a sensitivity analysis of the
section with an up-stand beam on one side was devel- serviceability performance of the structure. Beams of
oped. The lift shafts (provided for disabled access) and various dimensions and torsion constants were mod-
additional access staircases were then able to connect eled using a 3-D beam model. The resulting transverse
directly onto the open side of the bridge deck. deflections were then reviewed in conjunction with the
In its final form the steel structure is 101 m long economy of the section. For the chosen deck section,
with six spans: 17.7 m : 17.7 m : 27 m : 14 m : live load deflections of up to 50 mm were predicted
14 m : 11 m. The lengths of the first two spans were set on the main span. A maximum coexistent transverse

461
Figure 2. Visualisation showing lift shaft positions.

deflection of 40 mm was also calculated. From past

experience of designing and testing similar structures
this was judged acceptable.

2.2 Articulation
In deciding upon the fixity of the bridge, different
ways of providing the necessary transverse rotational
restraint to the box girder were reviewed. In the end,
a built-in pier was preferred because of the simplicity
of the connection detail.
Longitudinally the bridge is fixed at its northern
lift shaft. Behind its architectural cladding the lift
structure is braced internally to subtly provide a rigid
point that anchors the bridge. From this stagnant point
the continuous deck section expands and contracts in
response to temperature ranges.
2.3 Piers
The top of the piers are centered close to the line of the
deck section’s centre of gravity. The applied moments
in the pier section due to dead and superimposed dead
loads are therefore limited. It is in resisting eccentric
live loads that the pier must work hardest. To fulfill its
function a 1250 mm deep pier section was needed.
The final form of the pier was decided upon using a
simple technique. The pier head is subject to a fixed-
end transverse moment in combination with an applied
axial load. By angling the pier stem down its length
(towards the eccentric live load’s centre of effort) the
applied axial load becomes eccentric to the pier base.
A relieving moment that increases towards the bottom
of the pier is therefore induced. The reduction in the
applied transverse moment allows a section depth of
750 mm at the pier base. This reduces the visual impact
of the pier and provides an interesting aesthetic.
3 ANALYSIS
The analysis model for the bridge was relatively
straight forward. For the closed box girder, two lon-
gitudinal beams were defined on the section’s centre
of gravity and its shear centre. The moment of inertia
was then allocated to the beam on the section’s centroid
and the torsion constant to the beam along the section’s
shear centre. This approach was used to accurately
model the transverse deflections caused by eccentric
superimposed dead and live loads. The transverse
Figure 3. Pier and deck cross section.
diaphragms were modeled as I-beam sections and the
edge member as a longitudinal beam.
Global section properties were used in the ultimate
limit state analysis as per the recommendations of
BS5400-3:2000, Code of practice for the design of
steel bridges. The effects of shear lag on the element’s
section properties were, however, used for calculating
the deflections of the beams at the serviceability limit
state.
The number of load combinations was significant.
However, rather than using specialist bridge analysis
software, a general FEM package was used and the
separate load effects were exported to a spreadsheet.
A visual basic program then calculated the combined
limit states for a chosen member and presented 12
critical combinations.
A dynamic analysis applying oscillating loads to
the structure was also carried out following the rec-
ommendations of the SETRA Technical Guide, Foot-
bridges: Assessment of the vibrational behavior of
footbridges under pedestrian loading, 2006. This was
judged necessary because the first vertical mode of
vibration is in a range susceptible to excitation from
pedestrian loading. The vertical and lateral accelera-
tions were found to be well within acceptable limits.
4 DESIGN
4.1 Foundations
Resting on the roof of buried parking garage, the foun-
dations for the first two spans of the bridge are unique.

462
 Table 1. Natural frequencies of the bridge.
Mode Frequency (Hz)
1 2.36
2 3.20
3 3.42
4 3.71
5 4.40
Figure 4. Section on span 1 & 2 foundations.
The option of piling through the underground structure
was not permitted. The bridge foundations therefore
had to sit on top of the parking garage’s reinforced
concrete roof slab. This 350 mm thick slab, supported
by down-stand beams and circular columns supported
2.0 m of saturated fill material.
A solution that did not interfere with or add addition
loading to the existing roof structure was necessary.
One way of doing this was to support the bridge footing
on a structure that displaced the existing fill material
and reduced the superimposed dead load on the roof
slab.
In the final design two reinforced concrete up-stand
350 × 1500 beams, 8.9 m long and 3.0 m apart were
used to support the pier footings. These simply sup-
ported beams were constructed directly onto of the
existing structure’s waterproofing layer. The beams
transferred the bridge’s pier loads to the roof structure’s
500 × 1500 mm down-stand beams. By enclosing the
space between the up-stand beams, an empty cham-
ber was formed which displaced a significant weight
of fill material. In the end, no additional loading was
applied to the existing roof structure.
4.2 Piers
The piers for the bridge are fabricated steel sections
with internal stiffeners to prevent localized plate buck-
ling under the applied compressive stresses. Their
design allows for the forced displacement of the pier
heads due the thermal expansion and contraction of the
deck section. This movement causes bending stresses
in the pier section. The simplest means of reducing
the stresses in the steel was to limit the pier section’s
width. In fact, the stress range is purely a function of
463
the material’s modulus of elasticity and the width of the
pier. In the case of forced displacements, an increase
in pier stiffness does not reduce the induced stresses
as additional loads are attracted. Because of this the
piers are slender with a transverse width of 200 mm.
Five of the six piers were fabricated using Grade
S355JR steel. However, the first pier was constructed
using a high strength steel, Domex 550. This was nec-
essary to cope with the combination of transverse
moments due to the forced displacements and the
applied axial loads. The use of high strength steel is
appropriate when a higher tensile strength is required.
In short columns it will also increase the axial capac-
ity of the section. In the case of intermediate and long
columns, the benefit of high tensile steel is lost as
the section becomes susceptible to buckling. Also, at
serviceability the increase in steel strength does not
reduce the fatigue stress range. As a result the service-
ability stress ranges in the pier section were checked
using BS5400-10:1999, Code of practice for fatigue.
Although a stress range of 135 MPa was predicted, the
number of cycles due to temperature ranges was not
sufficient to comprise the design life of the structure.
4.3 Deck section
In a steel box girder bridge the effects of shear lag and
buckling of unsupported plate sections in compression
must be accounted for. In this regard BS5400-3:2000
was referenced. For the hogging and sagging regions of
the bridge the effective deck sections were developed
taking account of the reduced effective area of any
compression flanges. These sections were then used
to check the serviceability stresses in the plates.
The compressive buckling resistance of the web
plates was another important design consideration.
Using a plate model, the stresses in the webs were
calculated and verified using hand calculations. In
this instance the 10 mm transverse diaphragms, pro-
vided at approximately 2.0 m centres, help restrain the
web panels against local buckling. These diaphragms
also prevent the distortion of the box girder under the
applied torsional stresses.
Plated steel construction is a relatively expensive
construction method in comparison to reinforced con-
crete sections. The plate thickness of the deck section
was therefore varied across the length of the bridge to
achieve some economy. Using a concrete slab between
the deck cantilevers in lieu of steel plate also resulted
in significant savings.
4.4 Fabrication
The bridge deck section consists of over 3500 indi-
vidual plates. The dimensions of these plates were
calculated numerically and then checked graphically
using a 3-D CAD model. This approach gave the
design team certainty in the geometric detailing of the
bridge, which was essential when it came to checking
the contractor’s fabrication drawings.
Table 2. Material quantities and development costs.
Total weight of structural steel 128 t
in bridge & piers
Weight of structural steel / metre 1.3 t/m
Total construction cost of bridge R 10,950,000
structure (excluding glazing screen) ($1,368,750)
Construction cost of bridge structure R 27,104/m2
(excluding glazing screen)/m2 ($3,388)/m2
The main challenge in fabricating a closed torsion
box is the assembly and welding sequence and ensur-
ing that all the required welds can be accessed. The
presence of internal longitudinal webs introduced the
need for access windows at the diaphragms. Without
them it was not possible to ensure continuity in the
internal web plates at construction joints. Although
this detail was feasible it added time and distortion
risks to the fabrication process.
Plate distortion on the box section during the weld-
ing process was a major fabrication issue, especially on
the thicker plates (16 mm deck plates). Internal brac-
ing was required to maintain the sections geometry
to ensure the fit up of the segments. It was necessary
for the fabricator to develop a welding sequence that
minimized heat build up and distortion. Over the 12
months of construction it was necessary to continually
manage and monitor the fabrication process.
5 DEVELOPMENT COSTS
The basic quantities of structural steel and the devel-
opment costs of the bridge are presented in Table 2.
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6 CONCLUSIONS
Although the detailed design followed a conventional
approach, the fabrication process did not. The design
team invested significant effort in the detailing of
all plated sections to ensure the constructability of
the bridge. Throughout the construction process no
dimensional errors were found in the design. This is
because the plates were dimensioned both numerically
and graphically and the outputs correlated. This was,
however, only the first part of the process. During the
fabrication process the welding procedures were also
critical in preventing plate distortions that translated
to fit up problems on site. In this regard the presence
of the transverse diaphragms was important. In plac-
ing additional diaphragms at closer centres, the time
saved in the fit up the sections outweighed the cost of
the additional steel.
The final design of the bridge is a direct response
to the site and the required functionality for pedestri-
ans. It is hoped it also achieves the goal of creating a
positive landmark in the City.
REFERENCE
Adoa Da Fonesca, A. 2007a. Footbridges in Portugal.