INNOVATIVE DESIGN

DESIGN OF THE CANADA LINE EXTRADOSED TRANSIT

BRIDGE
Andrew Griezic, Christopher R. Scollard, and Don W. Bergman
Buckland & Taylor Ltd., Vancouver, Canada

Abstract
In 2005, TransLink procured the new Canada Line rapid transit system that will connect
Richmond, the Vancouver International Airport and downtown Vancouver. The Line is
scheduled for completion by 2009. An extradosed precast segmental box girder bridge
was designed for the longest span on the Line, which crosses the Fraser River North
Arm. This bridge form was selected to satisfy the vertical clearance requirements of the
river and nearby airport, and to maintain consistency with the typical precast segmental
construction methods used for the Line. The North Arm Bridge is 562 m long with a
180 m extradosed main span, 139 m side spans, 52 m transition spans and carries two
rail tracks and a suspended pedestrian/bikeway. A single plane of extradosed cables
anchored to two 22 m tall pylons support the main and side spans. New to North
America, this bridge form provided an appropriate solution considering the design
constraints. In this paper the extradosed bridge form is introduced prior to describing the
design constraints that led to its use for the North Arm Bridge. The analysis of dynamic
train-structure interaction, cable anchorage details and the precast segmental composite
steel/concrete pylons are also described.

1. Introduction
In 2005, TransLink initiated a process to finance, design, build, operate and maintain a
new 19 km long rapid transit line, consisting of elevated, at-grade and underground
guideway. Scheduled for completion in 2009, the Canada Line will connect Richmond,
the Vancouver International Airport and downtown Vancouver. The Canada Line is
being designed and constructed by a joint venture of Rizzani de Eccher SpA, of Italy,
and SNC-Lavalin, of Montreal, Canada. Buckland & Taylor Ltd., as consultants to the
joint venture, designed an extradosed precast concrete segmental box girder bridge for
the longest span on the Line, which crosses the North Arm of the Fraser River, as shown
in Figure 1.

This paper is part of the 7th International Conference on Short and Medium Span Bridges, Montreal, Canada, 2006.

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Figure 1: Canada Line extradosed transit bridge (North Arm Bridge)

The North Arm Bridge is 562 m long with a 180 m extradosed main span, 139 m side
spans and 52 m transition spans. The bridge carries two rail tracks and a suspended
pedestrian walkway/bikeway, as shown in Figure 2. In the haunched transition spans, the
girder depth varies from 2.8 to 5.8 m and in the main and side spans the girder is a
constant 3.4 m deep. The girder width varies from 8.4 to 10.3 m wide, allowing the
passage of trains around the central pylons. A single plane of 24 extradosed cables
anchored to the two 22 m tall pylons support the main and side spans. The superstructure
is supported on four integral twin-walled piers and two concrete end expansion bents.
The foundations comprise 0.915 m and 2 m diameter concrete filled steel pipe piles
driven into till at depths of 20 to 45 m below the ground surface.

Figure 2: Deck cross-section

Although new to North America, extradosed bridges have been used successfully for
medium spans in Europe and Japan. This paper describes how this bridge form provided
an appropriate solution for the North Arm Bridge. The extradosed bridge form is
introduced prior to describing the design constraints that led to its use on the Line. The
analysis of dynamic train-structure interaction, cable anchorage details and the precast
segmental composite steel/concrete pylons are also described.

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2. Extradosed bridges
Extradosed bridges are a hybrid of traditional cable-stayed and box girder bridges. This
bridge form, first introduced by Jacques Mathivat, has been successfully used for
medium spans in Japan and Europe, but has yet to be used in North America. Extradosed
bridges have been designed for medium spans of 150 m to 270 m, typically using
concrete box girders. The maximum 270 m span was recently achieved in Japan with
concrete box girders near the pylons and lightweight steel box girder drop-in midspan
sections.
Extradosed bridges offer advantages over a box girder designed for the same span
because the optimum tendon profile required to resist the bending demands at interior
supports can be provided without increasing the girder depth and weight. However, this
efficiency is partially offset by the higher cost of external stay cable systems versus
internal post-tensioning tendons.
Extradosed bridges are characterized by shallow sloped cables that serve primarily to
post-tension the deck rather than carry vertical loads like conventional stay cables. As
such, live load stresses in extradosed cables are much lower and represent a smaller
fraction of the total stress. Therefore, it is too conservative to impose a service level
stress limit of 45% of the guaranteed ultimate tensile strength, FGUTS, which is typically
specified for conventional stay cables. North American design codes do not currently
provide guidance for extradosed cable design, however, the French SETRA standard for
stay cables (1) provides criteria that distinguish between extradosed and conventional
stay cables based on the live load stress in the most heavily loaded cable, FFreq. Cables
with FFreq 50 MPa are considered extradosed whereas cables with FFreq 140 MPa
are considered conventional stay cables. For purely extradosed cables, SETRA Clause
14.8.2 limits the extradosed stay cable tension to 0.6FGUTS under the effect of rare SLS
combinations. For cables with live load stresses between 50 MPa and 140 MPa, SETRA
Clause 14.8.2 provides a smooth stress limit transition from 0.46FGUTS to 0.6FGUTS:
FFreq
FSLS 0.46
140

0.25

FGUTS 0.6FGUTS

(1)

3. Design constraints
The structural form of the North Arm Bridge was selected to fit within upper aviation
and lower marine navigational clearance envelopes and to minimize the number of deep
marine foundations. Although the poor Fraser River delta deposits would suggest a
lightweight steel or composite superstructure to minimize foundation costs, uncertainty
in steel supply and price, and economies resulting from compatibility of materials and
construction methods with the remainder of the Line, led to the use of a concrete
superstructure and pylons.

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The bridge alignment crosses two navigation channels, the 150 m wide Main Channel
and the 57 m wide Mitchell Channel. The minimum clearance above high, high water
level required for these channels and the vertical track alignment dictated by the nearby
stations limited the superstructure depth available to span the river. Because of proximity
of the bridge to the airport, the total structural depth, including superstructure and
pylons, also had to fit within the glidepath clearance envelope.
A cable-stayed structure may have been appropriate to span the river and accommodate
the shallow superstructure depth, but the tall towers required would extend into the
glidepath envelope. A post-tensioned box girder could have spanned the main navigation
channel, but the girder depth required for this span would not fit within the clearance
envelope and its weight would have led to significantly larger marine foundations. The
extradosed bridge, with its short pylons and relatively shallow superstructure, satisfied
all of these geometric constraints.
The span arrangement was selected to minimize the number of marine foundations. To
do so, the north pylon foundation was incorporated into an extension of Mitchell Island,
and the adjacent side span pier was placed on land, 139 m to the north. To balance the
139 m side span, a main span of 180 m was used, resulting in only one marine
foundation.
Precast segment weights could not exceed 70 tonnes because of transport and lifting
requirements. For the haunched transition spans, with a maximum girder depth of 5.8 m,
this weight limit resulted in a 2.8 m maximum segment length. For the main and side
span segments, in addition to the weight limit, the segments had to be of constant depth
and long enough to accommodate a cable anchorage. Although haunching the girder near
the pylons would be structurally more efficient, the additional material costs are less than
the incremental cost of providing an adjustable depth segment form. These criteria were
satisfied using 3.4 m deep segments that are typically 3.6 m long.

4. Design details
Some of the significant details featured in the design are presented below.
4.1 Cables
In the main and side spans, the girder is supported by 24 extradosed cables. Each cable
comprises 58-15.7 mm individually sheathed, galvanized and waxed strands, with an
ultimate strength of 1860 MPa, enclosed in a 225 mm diameter high-density
polyethylene (HDPE) pipe. The cables can be installed with light monostrand jacking
equipment and are replaceable.
Cable vibration is a significant concern for cable supported bridges. For the North Arm
Bridge, cable vibrations are limited by high damping internal rubber dampers installed at
the end of the deck anchorage guide pipe. The dampers provide a minimum stay

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damping level of 3% log dec. Potential rain-wind induced cable vibration is limited by
double helix ribs provided on the exterior surface of the HDPE pipes.
A conventional anchorage system that anchors each stay in the pylons and a cable saddle
system which allows the cables to pass continuously through the pylon and only be
anchored at deck level were considered. Conventional cable anchorages are widely used,
simplify cable installation, and provide greater redundancy than saddles, but result in
significant out-of-balance pylon forces during cable replacement or after cable rupture.
Cable saddles minimize out-of-balance forces, eliminate the need for inner pylon
inspection access, and reduce pylon dimensions. However, to carry the additional
flexural stresses that develop in the strands as they bend over the saddles requires two
more strands per cable than are required for cables with conventional anchorages that
only carry axial tension.
Based on a detailed cost comparison of the conventional and saddle systems, the
conventional system was more cost-effective and was therefore used.
4.2 Extradosed cable anchorage at deck level
Since a single plane of cables is provided to support the box girder, the cable intersects
the girder along its centreline and the vertical cable force needs to be transferred to the
webs. The vertical component of the cable force must be provided with a load path that
does not bend the top slab of the box girder. This force transfer is generally
accomplished using either large concrete diaphragms or chevron bracing inside the box
girder which usually consists of precast, post-tensioned concrete struts.
As an alternative to providing concrete struts, a simple detail was developed to provide
this load transfer mechanism using steel struts anchored into the concrete, as shown in
Figure 3. In order to resolve the cable forces, the steel struts transfer the vertical force
into the webs and the concrete anchor block at deck level serves to transfer the
longitudinal cable force into the deck.

Figure 3: Deck level extradosed cable anchorage

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The efficient steel struts minimize the weight of the cable anchor segment by replacing
heavier post-tensioned struts or concrete diaphragms with lightweight steel sections and
by reducing the dimensions of the cable anchor block, which would have to be larger for
post-tensioned struts to allow the tendons to be anchored in the block as they need to
pass over the stay pipe. The use of steel struts also eliminates the need for blockouts on
the outside faces of the segments since no post-tensioning is required.
To simplify the casting operations, the connection details for the steel struts were
designed to allow the struts to be installed after casting instead of embedding the struts
in the concrete. The anchor rods are torque tensioned to prestress the connection.
Because the steel strut system is not post-tensioned over its entire length, small axial
deformations will occur when the cables are installed and stressed. The elongation of the
strut allows the top slab to deflect, causing bending stresses to develop in the slab.
Therefore, the axial stiffness of the steel strut must be considered when selecting the
cross-section for the steel strut. A detailed check was carried out to ensure that the crosssection of the steel strut was large enough to prevent flexural cracking of the top slab.
4.3 Precast concrete/steel composite pylon
Structural steel, precast concrete, and precast concrete/steel composite pylon options
were considered. Cast-in-place concrete pylons were dismissed as an alternative since
they provided a significant schedule disadvantage over prefabricated solutions.
The structural steel option offered considerable scheduling and constructability
advantages since the pylons could be prefabricated off the critical path and installed with
a single crane lift. The steel pylon option also provided some aesthetic benefit in the
form of reduced cross-section dimensions as well as minimal weight and consequent
foundation demands.
Precast segmental concrete pylons were considered as they also presented schedule
advantages, were consistent with the construction methods used for the remainder of the
line, and the pylon segments could be placed with three crane lifts. However, in the cable
anchor regions, a significant amount of transverse post-tensioning was required to resist
the tensile stresses in the pylon webs caused by the cables pulling the pylons apart in
addition to shear forces caused by out-of-balance cable tensions. The transverse posttensioning required accessible anchorages and blockouts on the outer faces and these
post-tensioning operations added time to the construction schedule.
Therefore, a solution was developed for the pylons that incorporated the advantages of
precast segmental construction, but eliminated the need for transverse post-tensioning in
the cable anchor regions. This solution consists of a single precast concrete base segment
that supports two post-tensioned composite steel/concrete cable anchor segments for the
top portion of the pylon making up the anchorage zone, as shown in Figure 4. This
solution was compatible with the construction methods and material of the rest of the

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structure and could be dimensioned to maintain the available space between the two
tracks on the bridge. The increase in weight in moving from the steel to the composite
pylon solution increased the foundation demands and pile reinforcing slightly, but did
not increase the number of piles required in the foundations.

HSS, TYP.

WEB PL 13.

Figure 4: Precast concrete pylon

Figure 5: Pylon cable anchor segment

The design of the pylon segments was based on their function and to use appropriate
materials most efficiently. Unstiffened 13 mm thick steel plates, anchored to posttensioned concrete flanges, are provided to carry the tensile forces in the cable anchor
regions, as shown in Figures 5 and 6(a). The thin steel plates also resist shear between
the anchorages due to unbalanced cable loads but do not carry vertical loads because
flexible connections are provided between each cable. The connections comprise square
hollow structural sections (HSS) which act as expansion joints between each cable to
relieve the vertical load in the steel plates and allow the post-tensioning forces in the
anchor segments to be transmitted entirely to the concrete flanges. The post-tensioned
concrete base segment, shown in Figure 6(b), is subjected primarily to compression and
bending and so steel web plates are not required.

(a) in cable anchor region

(b) at deck level

Figure 6: Pylon cross-sections

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5. Dynamic train-structure interaction

In rail structures, discontinuities or bumps in the rail profile, or rapid structural
displacements caused by the dynamic vehicle loading can excite the sprung and damped
vehicle suspension system. This induces structural vibrations and demands which can
exceed those caused by the statically applied vehicle weight. For the North Arm Bridge
design, the effects of this dynamic train-structure interaction were considered at both
ultimate and serviceability limit states.
The dynamic train-structure interaction was analyzed by running a dynamic train time
history analysis. In this analysis the train consists of three vehicles, each having a mass
and rotational inertia, and being supported by a spring and damper on two bogies, that
each have an unsprung mass as shown in Figure 7. The train was stepped across the
bridge at the 60 km/hr design velocity using a time step of 0.01 s. The vehicle
suspension is excited by specifying the height of a bump at a particular point along the
rail.

MB, I

k
BOGIE

MT

UNSPRUNG BOGIE MASS, MT = 3880 kg

STIFFNESS, k = 0.32 kN/mm
VERTICAL DAMPING, c = 4.69 kNs/m
SPRUNG MASS, MB = 34606 kg
2
BODY PITCH INERTIA, I = 807,000 kgm

MT

k
BOGIE

Figure 7: Vehicle dynamic properties

For ultimate and serviceability limit states, the impact factor, I, assumed for design
should be verified. An I = 10% was specified in the design criteria for the design of all
structural components except bearings, expansion joints and foundations. The
appropriateness of this factor was investigated by comparing the vertical displacements
at midspan caused by identical trains run statically and dynamically across the bridge.
The resulting vertical displacement time-histories at midspan are presented in Figure 8.
At t = 10 s and 27 s the train is in the south and north side spans, respectively, causing
the midspan to deflect upwards. At approximately t = 18 s the train causes the maximum
downwards midspan displacement. The smooth dynamic time-history plot indicates that
there is virtually no transient response to the vehicle loading and thus I is very small.
The midspan static deflection of 76.7 mm is increased only marginally to 77.7 mm when
considering dynamic effects, implying I = 1%.
The computed I is very small for this bridge because the concrete girder is very stiff and
not easily excited, and because the continuously welded rail lacks the imperfections that

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excite the vehicle suspension. The only vehicle excitation source is the rail expansion
joints, for which the maximum vertical rail discontinuity at service loads is 1 mm.

25mm
0mm
-25mm

-50mm

10

15

20

25

30

76.7 mm

35

40
DYNA M IC

-75mm

STA TIC

-100mm

TIM E (s)

77.7 mm

Figure 8: Comparison of static and dynamic displacements at middle of main span

Another important serviceability consideration is passenger comfort. The rail
discontinuities that cause dynamic structural loading also cause passenger compartment
vibration. The associated passenger accelerations should be less than 0.05 g, the
passenger comfort threshold (2). The passenger compartment acceleration time-histories
at the first and sixth bogies are presented in Figure 9 for a 1 mm vertical discontinuity at
the rail expansion joint. Bogie 6 accelerations lag behind those of Bogie 1 by
approximately 2.5 s, the time it takes the train to cross the joint. The maximum
acceleration of Bogie 6 is 0.037g and is larger than that of Bogie 1 because the preceding
five bogies have caused the first span to deflect, effectively increasing the expansion
joint rail discontinuity. The maximum passenger acceleration is below the 0.05g comfort
threshold and after the train travels beyond the expansion joint the accelerations decrease
markedly.
0.050g

PA SSENGER A CCELERA TION - BOGIE 1

0.025g
0.000g
-0.025g

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

30

35

40

TIME (s)

-0.050g
0.050g

PA SSENGER A CCELERA TION - BOGIE 6

0.025g
0.000g
-0.025g

10

15

20

25

TIME (s)

-0.050g

Figure 9: Passenger acceleration time histories

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6. Summary and conclusions

When completed in 2008, the Canada Line extradosed transit bridge will be the first of
its kind in North America.
An extradosed bridge with its short pylons and shallow cables that minimize the depth of
the superstructure was an appropriate solution to satisfy the clearance envelopes required
for the YVR glidepath above and the navigation channels below.
Economies of scale, constructability, schedule considerations and construction costs
were fundamental to the design of the girders, pylons and cables:

precast girders were sized to satisfy transport and lifting requirements and minimize
the number of different forms;

steel struts were provided to transfer the vertical cable forces to the webs because
they are lighter, more efficient and easier to install than typical post-tensioned
concrete struts;

thin unstiffened steel web plates, anchored to post-tensioned concrete flanges of the
pylon cable anchor segments, were provided to carry the tensile and shear forces
across the cable anchorages;

pylon base segments, subjected primarily to compression and bending, did not
require a steel web plate and were designed as post-tensioned concrete components;
and,

conventional cable anchorages were provided as they were more cost-effective than
a cable saddle system.

The dynamic train-structure interaction analysis confirmed that the assumed impact
factor was conservative and that the peak accelerations that will be experienced by the
passengers are within the recognized comfort criteria.

7. References
1.
2.

SETRA, Cable Stays, Recommendations of the French Interministerial

Commission of Prestressing (Service dEtudes Techniques des Routes et
Autoroutes, June 2004).
ISO, Guide for the Evaluation of Human Exposure to Whole Body Vibration,
ISO/ DIN 2631, 1978.

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