Design principle of deck pavements for long-span steel bridges with heavy-duty traffic in China

This paper presents the design principle of the asphalt surfacing system for long-span steel bridges in China. The major distresses of deck pavements on long-spanned steel bridges have been classified into material-dependent and structure-dependent groups. The behaviours of deck pavements under traffic wheel load have been summarised with a multi-scale approach. A fatigue-based mechanical-experimental design procedure and the candidate asphalt surfacing materials were proposed for a long-lasting surfacing system of long-spanned steel bridge decks. To be concluded, the success of deck pavements on long-spanned steel bridges is not only the contribution of reliable materials and structures, an better understand of the multi-scale behaviors of the system and an integration of material design and optimization of construction technology with a strict quality control system will also be the contribution.