Bridge Design

Preface

About 15 years ago, the first author, A. J. Reis, was invited by Wiley to write a book on Bridge Design that could be adopted as textbook for bridge courses and as a guideline for bridge engineers. The author's bridge course notes from the University of Lisbon, updated over almost 30 years, were the basis for this book. For different reasons, the completion of the book was successively postponed until a final joint effort with the second author, J. J. Oliveira Pedro, made this long project a reality. The book mainly reflects the long design experience of the authors and their academic lecturing and research activities.

Bridge design is a multidisciplinary activity. It requires a good knowledge and understanding of a variety of aspects well beyond structural engineering. Road and railway design, geotechnical and hydraulic engineering, urban planning or environmental impact and landscape integration are key aspects. Architectural, aesthetic and environmental aspects are nowadays recognized as main engineering issues for bridge designers. However, these subjects cannot be studied independently of structural and construction aspects, such as the bridge erection method. On the other hand, what differentiates bridge design from building design, for example, is generally the role of the bridge engineer as a leader of the design process. Hence, the first aim of this book is to present an overview on all these aspects, discussing from the first bridge concepts to analysis in ...