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Dr, DI, Schimetta Consult ZT GmbH, Wien, Austria. Contact: roman.geier(schimetta.co.at

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In 2007, one oI the largest composite
bridges in Austria was built as part oI
the upgrading oI the A2 motorway.
First a steel skeleton 700 m long was
extended Irom the two abutments on
piers 70 m high: then concrete was
cast - to complete the load-bear-
ing structure. The geometry oI the
site necessitated special Iabrication
methods. With caissons located in an
incline subiect to slip, and the need to
allow Ior earthquakes, planning the
structure was an extremely demand-
ing task, involving non-linear calcula-
tion oI supports as per second-order
theory, taking into account state 2
and the various loads imposed dur-
ing erection. This paper summarizes
the main issues aIIecting design and
construction.
- bridge design: compos-
ite bridge: eurocode: steelwork:
launching.

The A2 motorway is an important

through route in the Austrian road
network: the section between Bad
St Leonhard and WolIsberg in Carinthia
was opened on 26 July 1986. Budgetary
diIIiculties had led to this and other
sections oI the motorway being dimen-
sioned as a "stripped-down motorway",
that is a road in which the carriageways
were separated only by two unbroken
lines. AIter numerous traIIic accidents,
some oI them very serious, a crash
barrier was installed: however, this
meant that there was no longer room
Ior an emergency lane. As beIore, traI-
Iic in all tunnels was two-way. When
the motorway was originally opened,
in a day about 8000 vehicles used it:
today the Iigure is roughly 23 000, with
the number oI lorries rising steeply.
Planning Ior a second (independent)
carriageway, that is, Iull-scale upgrad-
ing, started as early as 1993.

Construction work on upgrading
the A2 motorway between the Bad
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St Leonhard and WolIsberg Nord
iunctions began on 16 August 2004 and
was completed on 31 October 2007. In
the course oI upgrading the A2, bridge
structures needed to be put in place
Ior the second carriageway at various
points, including the existing valley
crossing at Auenbach (Structure P30)
northwest oI WolIsberg in Carinthia,
where the motorway crossed the val-
ley on a ten-section bridge almost
700 m long and about 70 m above
the valley Iloor. The motorway align-
ment snakes through the bridges in an
S shapewhich presented a special
challenge in construction according to
Apart Irom a slight dip at one
end, the bridge has the same gradient
throughout.
In 1980, on the basis oI a special pro-
posal by the construction company
concerned, the existing bridge (a pre-
stressed concrete structure with box
girder cross section) was erected by
the cantilever method, with a trav-
elling Iormwork carriage overhead.
However, the sinuous alignment led
to unexpected complications with the
cantilever method. In view oI the geol-
ogy at the site and the massive loads on
the piers, deep caissons and large-bore
piles were used Ior the substructure.
The ground here consists oI loose soil,
run-oI-hill scree and loam overlying a
deeply weathered zone oI the Koralpe
crystalline rock. On the valley Iloor the
water table is only 1 m below the sur-
Iace. This diIIicult geological situation
has resulted in landslip around the abut-
ments, imposing massive stresses on the
substructure oI the existing bridge.
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The proiect promoter stipulated that
the alignment oI the new bridge must
be parallel to the existing bridge, with
roughly the same pier spacing. This
meant that the new piers would be
in the shadow oI the existing piers.
However, the circumstances oI the
new proiect are signiIicantly diIIerent
Irom those that were applicable when
the Iirst bridge was designed: maior
revision oI the standards governing
calculation and loading (e.g. greater
earthquake loads, new approach to
saIety issues) had to be taken into
account, as had the experience oI soil
conditions (e.g. landslip around the
abutments) acquired in the meantime.
Technical Report 153
KlagenIurt
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From the very start oI design work, it
seemed likely that a composite struc-
ture would IulIil these requirements
better than any pre-stressed concrete
structure, in spite oI the rise in the
price oI steel. The arguments against
a pre-stressed concrete bridge were its
greater weight (a disadvantage with
reIerence to the substructure and in the
case oI an earthquake), the awkward
situation Ior conventional step-by-step
movement (the height oI the piers, the
sinuous alignment) and the pier spac-
ing, which was disadvantageous Ior the
cantilever method.
The designer's thinking was corrobo-
rated by the results oI tendering: the
composite bridge speciIied in the ten-
der documents turned out economical
than any oI the pre-stressed concrete
versions proposed. In this particular
case, composite structures clearly have
deIinite advantages when various con-
straints are taken into account.
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The superstructure consists oI ten seg-

ments with an overall length oI 686 m
and gaps oI 69-74,60 m between piers
according to The end segments
are 61,75 and 55 m long, respectively.
The structure is almost 70 m above the
valley Iloor. The cross section provides
two motorway lanes plus a hard
Standard cross-section
shoulder. Overall width is 15 m, so the
surIace area oI the bridge comes to
10 290 m
2
. These measurements make
the Auenbach Bridge the largest com-
posite bridge in Austria.
The cross section is Iormed by a dou-
ble tee beam: overall depth is 5,23 m,
beam depth is 4,50 m (reIer to
Pot bearings were used as bridge bear-
ings: simple supports all round were
planned Ior the Iive piles in the middle
section. At the proiecting ends, water-
tight linking structures with up to
440 mm oI elongation capacity were
installed.
The abutment at the Graz end is
grounded on three elliptical anchored
caissons 27 m deep: the anchors are
up to 52 m long. In order to improve
resistance to creep pressure in the
slope, the longer axes oI the caissons
run parallel to the slope line. The abut-
ment at the KlagenIurt end and all the
piers are grounded on up to 15 drilled
piles each, 1200 mm in diameter and
up to 22 m long. Jacking Iorm work was
used to construct the drilled piles Ior
the structure.
The reinIorced concrete slab Ior the
carriageway rests on two double tee
beams 7,70 m apart. The slab proiects
3,65 m on each side. Roughly every
3,50 m, a cross Irame made oI rolled
sections adds rigidity to the steel cross
section. The two beams are oI the
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same height (constant over the entire
length). Variations in the height oI the
composite beams, due to changes in
camber along the sinuous alignment,
are achieved by means oI variations in
the height oI the slab beams, which are
hunched in cross section.
The webs are 15 or 18 mm thick.
The Ilanges vary in thickness Irom
45 to 150 mm: plates up to 60 mm
thick are used Ior these, and Ilanges
thicker than 60 mm are made Irom
more than one plate. The steel grade
S355 J2G3 was used Ior all steelwork
throughout.
The entire steel structure oI the bridge,
weighing about 2050 t, was Iabricated
and welded to completion in nine
months. The main beams were divided
lengthways into 29 sections per web:
the resulting sections were up to 26 m
long. These sections (4,70 m high) were
transported to the site via the motor-
way as oversize loads, lying Ilat: the
motorway had to be closed to traI-
Iic brieIly while the low loader used,
turned around.
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The basis Ior dimensioning the bridge
structure was provided by Eurocode
and by Austrian standards compara-
ble to Eurocode (ENV 1994-2, ENV
1993-2, N B 4702): the loads on the
bridge were calculated in line with
NORM B 4002 and RVS 15.114.
In the Iew cases where the various
standards were not in agreement, or
where provisions were missing, rea-
sonable requirements were agreed
with the promoter, Ior example, wind
during construction and the impact oI
changes in temperature.
Analysis was perIormed both on the
entire system (preliminary dimension-
ing, earthquake, calculating supports,
etc.) and on various subsystems, to
investigate pile works, abutments, vari-
ous transitional states during launching
and the composite slab. The boundary
and support conditions Ior consider-
ing the composite slab separately were
derived Irom the entire system.
154 Technical Report
Earthquake analysis (Ior the Austrian
earthquake zone 3) was based on the
response spectrum method. The sup-
ports were dimensioned taking into
account the second-order theory Ior
non-linear behaviour according to
Uzunoglu-Zoggeler.
1
To model the pile
structures, non-linear beddings were
selected and the bedding stresses were
limited. Here, it was necessary to con-
sider the diIIering bedding properties on
the slope line and parallel to the slope:
the angle the slope line makes with the
bridge axis diIIers at every pier axis.
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The basic idea Ior erecting the steel

structure was to launch segments Irom
both abutments as Iar as the midpoint
in the segment between axes 40 and 50.
Because the launching approach is the
most cost-eIIective erection procedure
in the given circumstances, a method
was developed making it possible to
move segments longitudinally even
with variable plan geometry.
Behind each abutment there was an
assembly area about 50 m long in
which the individual segments oI the
main beams were liIted into place by
two 60 t mobile cranes and secured
against tipping over sideways beIore
they were set down as shown in
Once the structure had been checked
Ior dimensional accuracy, the main
beams were welded up, and the bracing
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and catwalk were installed and welded
in place.
AIter (as a rule) two segments at a
time had been assembled, the assem-
blage was moved out longitudinally.
Because oI the sinuous motorway
alignment (with clothoid spirals back
and Iorth), lateral adiustment was nec-
essary on every single pier. Launching
rockers capable oI sideways move-
ment were employed Ior this. Rockers
commonly used in steelwork construc-
tion were mounted on welded I-beams
670 mm high: the latter were sup-
ported over a slip plane and could
move sideways. The crossbeams were
Iixed in place by means oI DYWIDAG
rods embedded in concrete, and had a
lug welded-on to provide lateral hold.
This carriage also contained the point
on which the hydraulic iack required
Ior lateral adiustment acted. During
outward movement, pier deIlection
Irom the centre line was at the maxi-
mum: the superstructure axis was 2,75
m out oI true, corresponding to 2,05 m
oI overhang oI the web axis beyond
the pier edge.
In contrast to the concrete structures
with varying plan geometry that have
been erected by means oI step-by-step
movement, the superstructure was not
shiIted longitudinally and then laterally,
but continuously on a circular path. A
Iictitious launching circle was deIined
as the locus oI movement. The advan-
tage oI launching in a circle is that the
current distance between the structure
axis and the launching circle at each
cross beam does not vary during move-
ment. It was thus possible to indicate
these distances with magnetic letters at
the cross beams, which made it much
easier to align the segment in question
laterally. With this launching geometry,
though, lateral movement was neces-
sary at the abutments, too. To start with,
a scale and a pointer were mounted on
each pier, with zero corresponding to
the intersection oI the launching circle
with the pier axis. Launching began
with a longitudinal movement: as soon
as the lateral deviation Irom zero on
a pier or abutment exceeded 100 mm,
lateral movement was perIormed there
according to This succession oI
longitudinal and lateral movements
was repeated until the Iinal position
planned was reached. AIter launching,
the nuts on the DYWIDAG rods were
used to secure the structure against
lateral movement at all piers and abut-
ments. Four 40 t hydraulic iacks were
employed in the launching operation.
Then the position oI the segment
ends was adiusted to within 10 mm
(longitudinally and laterally) and Iur-
ther segments were assembled behind
the abutment and moved out. This
sequence oI assembly and movement
was repeated until the bridge was
completed.
Because movement proceeded Irom
both abutments as Iar as the midpoint,
an erection nose was not used Ior
launching. However, a special device
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2/2010 Technical Report 155
to cope with up to 1,40 m oI sag in the
cantilever was used Ior landing on the
piers.
AIter the Iinal launching move-
ment in each case, the structure was
aligned laterally on all axes, and the
top Ilange was suryeyed. Next, the
launching rockers were removed and
both main beams set to the correct
height simultaneously. BeIore the
midpoint ioint was welded up, the
gradient oI the structure was adiusted
by liIting at the two adioining piers so
that aIter Iinal setting down, the Iield
moment calculated Ior the midpoint
was achieved.
Once the steel structure had been
linked up, the carriageway slab was con-
creted non-stop in 28 sections Irom the
KlagenIurt abutment to the Graz abut-
ment. On completion, the bridge was
opened to traIIic in December 2007.
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This paper presents the design and
construction oI the composite bridge
P30 which is one oI the structures
oI the missing link oI the A2 motor-
way in the Pack area. Because oI the
mountainous topology oI this section,
several demanding bridges were con-
structed. The Auenbach Bridge rep-
resents one oI the longest composite
bridges in Austria currently. The design
was selected based on the alignment
preconditions as well as column spacing
in parallel to the existing structure as
the clear conclusion oI the consultant.
The superiority oI the solution was also
conIirmed in the tender, as all alterna-
tives submitted (post-tensioned con-
crete or steel) were more expensive.
The given boundary conditions (spans,
geology, seismic loads) as well as the
current requirements to completely
Iollow new Eurocode comparable
codes have been a challenge Ior the
design consultants. The S-shape align-
ment required a special construction
method applying a launching tech-
nique Irom both abutments. The Iol-
lowing Iacts are particularly signiIicant
Ior the bridge P30:
- The structure represents the lon-
gest composite bridge in Austria
presently with a total length oI 700 m
and ten spans.
- Because oI the S-shape alignment as
well as the adiustment oI the column
spacing to the existing structure, spe-
cial considerations had to be taken
during design and construction oI
the bridge.
- During realization Irom both abut-
ments using a special launching
technology, large eccentricities had
to be considered.
- The geologic conditions (slope move-
ments in the past) as well as relatively
high seismic loads led to large-scale
Ioundations Ior the whole structure.
The composite system represents high
economy in terms oI realization as well
as liIe cycle costs compared with alter-
native approaches like post-tensioned
concrete or steel.

|1| Uzunoglu T, Zoggeler J. et al:

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J Edition 3199. Zement
and Beton: 12-21 (in German).
156 Technical Report