THE LOAD TEST TO COLLAPSE OF A 5M SPAN BRICKWORK ARCH BRIDGE WITH TIED SPANDREL WALLS

Most of the UK masonry arch bridge stock is over 100 years old and has been subjected to the vicissitudes of the British weather in addition to ever increasing traffic. One of the consequences of these effects is the detachment of spandrel walls from the main arch barrel usually causing a longitudinal crack in the barrel to occur at the rear of the spandrel wall thus allowing it to move outwards taking that part of the barrel immediately beneath the wall with it. Also spandrel walls may bulge or tilt. The usual solution to spandrel wall movement is to tie the walls together. This paper considers the behaviour of a 5m span brickwork arch bridge constructed with detached spandrel walls which were tied together. The bridge was similar to an earlier bridge test in every detail apart from the wall ties. (A)