As part of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s (WisDOT) efforts to reduce oversight, delivery and overall costs associated with the Local Bridge Program, the Bureau of Structures (BOS) developed standardized single span concrete slab bridge designs and plans for local bridges. As a part of this initiative, WisDOT was awarded a grant through the FHWA State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) incentive program.
Concrete flat slab bridges represent a large percentage of the types of replacement bridges used on local road projects. An automated catalog of concrete flat slab bridge plans that offer a range of lengths, widths and skews – amongst other bridge features – provides an efficient means of creating plans with reduced overall structures design engineering cost. In turn, that reduction in delivery cost will be able to be reallocated within the program and will allow WisDOT to deliver more projects.
The standardized plans provide a significant benefit in streamlining final design and drafting of concrete flat slab bridges. The bridge type, size and location (preliminary engineering), including hydraulics and a portion of the geotechnical analysis, will still be required to be completed by the designer.