MEASUREMENT BASED REVISIONS FOR SEGMENTAL BRIDGE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION CRITERIA. FINAL REPORT

This report is the second and final in a series reporting the field study of several spans of the San Antonio "Y" project. The San Antonio "Y" project is a major urban viaduct comprising segmental concrete box girders post-tensioned with a mix of internal and external tendons and erected using span-by-span techniques. The instrumentation program targeted areas of segmental design and construction which are still uncertain due to lack of laboratory and field data or are still debated by designers and constructors. The targeted areas of uncertainty were: (1) Prestress losses in external tendons, (2) Distribution of stresses across flanges, (3) Thermal gradients and their effects, (4) Behavior of segmental joints, (5) Heavy end diaphragm behavior, (6) Deviator behavior, (7) Behavior under construction and live loads, and (8) Thermal gradients during match casting. Each topic is presented in an individual chapter which includes a literature review, a description of the instrumentation system, presentation of the results, analysis and comparison with current design methods, and recommendations for improvement of current design and construction criteria.