Fast-paced construction of the new Khalifa port bridge project

Abstract

The significant growth and development in the United Arab Emirates in recent years necessitated considering advanced construction techniques for bridge structures. This paper presents features of the New Khalifa Port Project which consisted of bridge structures with a combined length of 3.64 km. The strict project design criteria, schedule and budget represented significant challenges which required considering specific designs using efficient precast elements and construction methods. The bridge structural system consisted of 39.8 m long precast, pretensioned modified AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) girders with cast-in-place concrete deck slabs. The main challenge was to optimize the size of the precast girder as the self-weight of the initially proposed elements exceeded the lifting capacity of the available equipment. The other challenge was to correlate between the British Standards and AASHTO LRFD (load and resistance factor design) code to design the girders for static and dynamic loads. The casting yard was set at 70 km from the project site and delivery roads were assigned to accommodate the special tandems carrying girders weighing 80 tons each. Lessons learned during design, fabrication, transportation and construction of the precast girders add on to the efficiency of the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) processes.