Feasibility study on heavy duty timber bridges

Switzerland’s goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050 calls for sustainable solutions on transport routes – for example, in the form of heavy-duty bridges made from timber. The study explores the specific implementation of such structures.

Situation

Switzerland has a 2,254.5-km network of national highways with a total of 4,270 bridges on the main axes or serving as overpasses (Federal Roads Office FEDRO annual publication, 2020). The national highways network has a very high density of bridge structures with around two bridges per kilometre of transport network. A survey on road bridges conducted by BFH for the period 2010 to 2014 indicated that the supporting structure of just 3% of these bridges contains timber. The feasibility study aims to produce the first designs and solutions specifically for heavy-duty bridges made from timber.

Course of action

Timber and the wide range of timber-based products and technologies hold potential for use in heavy-duty bridges on the road system. The project aims to produce box-girder sections made from concrete in combination with pre-stressed timber technology for extensive use on heavy-duty traffic routes. Society is willing to change and to commit to achieving a climate-neutral Switzerland by 2050. Research and industry need to find new high-performance solutions for the construction sector. A parametric model will be developed to determine the optimal load-bearing and deformation behaviour on the transversal and longitudinal axes of bridges. The use of pre-stressed technology with tendon profiles, the number of harnesses and the anchoring system will be tested on the model/experiment. An initial working model close to the original scale will be used to assess practical aspects of implementation.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Steffen Franke

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• +41 32 344 03 05
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