Temporary Bearing Method in Construction of Continuous Beam Bridge Erected as Simply-Supported Beam

The present practice in Bangladesh for erection of girders is placing the girder directly on the bearing pad and joining the adjacent two spans in deck slab level by adopting expansion joints, as the bridges are presently designed as simply-supported beam bridge. The main disadvantage of this type of bridges is that, the seismic resistance is weak, and under the external force beyond the design range, the bridges are more likely to fall in danger because of failure in girders. Also they have expansion joints for each span, which affects the comfort of driving and the overall integrity of the bridge deck is poor [1]. Therefore, design and construction of the bridges have been revised to establish continuity between girders of two adjacent spans and transform the bridge as simply supported continuous beam bridge [2]. Temporary bearing (sandbox) method is proposed in this paper to solve the system transformation of continuous beam bridges. Design of the temporary bearing is very simple and can be manufactured at site. This method has been proved in construction of Arial Kha Bridge and can be applied for other similar bridges in Bangladesh.