Effect of Overloaded Vehicles on the Performance of Highway Bridge Girder: A Case Study

This paper is about the analysis of a prestressed highway bridge and its strengthening. The bridge wassimply supported I’ Girder structure with four-lanes and itwas heavily loaded than its capacity; therefore, bridge was analysed in flexure using software “SAP 2000” for the actual or modified vehicular loading present over the bridge. Flexural analysis was performed in two stages: initially, the bridge was analysed for the loads for which it was originally designed and then the same bridge was checked for the modified vehicular load present over it. Analysis resultsrevealed that the stresses in the I-girders were exceeding in tension side and therefore bridge had a problem in serviceability due to heavy vehicular load (modified load) and therefore required strengthening. After strengthening the bridge using plate bonding strengthening technique, bridge was reanalysed against the modified loading which showed that the flexure capacity of the bridge is sufficient to withstand the heavy vehicular loads.