The Al3 viaduct: construction of a large monolithic concrete bridge deck

The A13 viaduct is a new structure carrying the A13 road around Ford's Dage nham plant,The structure was designed with the dual aim of fast mechanised construction by the use of glued segmental cantilever construction and of p roviding a low-maintenance structure with minimum joints and bearings. The use of continuity is actively encouraged in UK standards as it has obvious design and durability advantages; this paper describes the design and const ruction of this large fully continuous, precast prestressed segmental concr ete structure. Emphasis is placed on the design and construction methods us ed to form the innovative 54 000 m(2) monolithic deck from 1030 precast seg mental units giving a 1750 m long continuous structure.