Construction Methods for Reinforced Concrete Arch Bridges

During the whole of the history of construction, the arch has been the resistant structure par excellence, and still is today. Concrete arches had been favoured for large spans up to the middle of the twentieth century. Then, other structural systems were developed for large spans, which made arches non-competitive, primarily due to their large construction costs. In the paper, the state of the art in concrete arch bridge cosntruction methods is briefly discussed, with the emphasis on future prospects of various technologies used. Following construction methods are reviewed: erection on scaffolding, construction using prefabricated elements, cantilever erection procedure, arch lowering method and combined methods. The development of free cantilever construction techniques for large concrete arch bridges was greatly improved through the construction of some bridges in Croatia in the last few decades. Their utilisation for any future bridge depends on local conditions and prices of materials and work force. Paper confirms that various arch construction methods already exist, which might be utilised for the erection of even larger arches, or for arch bridges of a small and medium span, which will successfully compete with modern beam and cable-stayed bridges.