11/23/2017 Cantilever bridge - Wikipedia

Cantilever bridge
A cantilev er bridge is a bridge built using cantilev ers,
structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only Cantilever Bridge
one end. For small footbridges, the cantilev ers may be simple
beams; howev er, large cantilev er bridges designed to handle road
or rail traffic use trusses built from structural steel, or box girders
built from prestressed concrete. The steel truss cantilev er bridge
was a major engineering breakthrough when first put into
practice, as it can span distances of ov er 1 ,500 feet (460 m), and The Pierre Pflimlin bridge is a
can be more easily constructed at difficult crossings by v irtue of balanced cantilever made of
using little or no falsework. concrete, shown here under
construction.
Ancestor Beam bridge, Truss
Contents bridge
Related None
Origins
1 Descendant Swing bridge
Function Carries Pedestrians,
2
automobiles, trucks,
Construction methods light rail, heavy rail
3
Span range Medium
List by length
4 Material Iron, structural steel,
Examples prestressed concrete
5
Movable No
References
6 Design Medium
effort
External links
7 Falsework Very little to none
required

Origins
Engineers in the nineteenth century
understood that a bridge that was continuous
across multiple supports would distribute the
loads among them. This would result in lower
stresses in the girder or truss and meant that
longer spans could be built. [1]:57, 190 Sev eral
nineteenth century engineers patented
continuous bridges with hinge points mid-
span. [2]:75,79 The use of a hinge in the multi-
span sy stem presented the adv antages of a
statically determinate sy stem [3] and of a bridge
that could handle differential settlement of the
foundations. [1]:190 Engineers could more easily
calculate the forces and stresses with a hinge in
the girder.

Heinrich Gerber was one of the engineers to obtain a patent for a hinged girder (1 866) and is recognized as
the first to build one. [2]:79 The Hassfurt Bridge ov er the Main riv er in Germany with a central span of 1 24 feet
(38 meters) was completed in 1 867 and is recognized as the first modern cantilev er bridge. [3]:par. 2

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The High Bridge of Kentucky by C. Shaler Smith (1 87 7 ), the Niagara Cantilev er Bridge by Charles Conrad
Schneider (1 883) and the Poughkeepsie Bridge by John Francis O'Rourke and Pomeroy P. Dickinson (1 889)
were all important early uses of the cantilev er design. [3]:par. 3,5 The Kentucky Riv er Bridge spanned a gorge
that was 27 5 feet (84 meters) deep and took full adv antage of the fact that falsework, or temporary support, is
not needed for the main span of a cantilev er bridge. [3]:par. 3

The most famous early cantilev er bridge is the Forth

Bridge. This bridge held the record for longest span in the
world for sev enteen y ears, until it was surpassed by the
Quebec Bridge. Benjamin Baker illustrated the structural
principles of the suspended span cantilev er in the photo on
the left. The suspended span, where Kaichi Watanabe sits, is
seen in the center. The need to resist compression of the
lower chord is seen in the use of wooden poles while the
tension of the upper chord is shown by the outstretched
arms. The action of the outer foundations as anchors for
the cantilev er is v isible in the placement of the
counterweights. [3]:par. 6

Function
Cantilev er Bridge.A structure at least one portion of which acts as an anchorage for sustaining
another portion which ex tends bey ond the supporting pier.

John Alexander Low Waddell, Bridge Engineering[4]

A simple cantilev er span is formed by two cantilev er arms ex tending from opposite sides of an obstacle to be
crossed, meeting at the center. In a common v ariant, the suspended span, the cantilev er arms do not meet
in the center; instead, they support a central truss bridge which rests on the ends of the cantilev er arms. The
suspended span may be built off-site and lifted into place, or constructed in place using special trav elling
supports.

A common way to construct steel truss and prestressed concrete cantilev er spans is to counterbalance each
cantilev er arm with another cantilev er arm projecting the opposite direction, forming a balanced
cantilev er; when they attach to a solid foundation, the counterbalancing arms are called anchor arm s.
Thus, in a bridge built on two foundation piers, there are four cantilev er arms: two which span the obstacle,
and two anchor arms which ex tend away from the obstacle. Because of the need for more strength at the
balanced cantilev er's supports, the bridge superstructure often takes the form of towers abov e the
foundation piers. The Commodore Barry Bridge is an ex ample of this ty pe of cantilev er bridge.

Steel truss cantilev ers support loads by tension of the upper members and compression of the lower ones.
Commonly , the structure distributes the tension v ia the anchor arms to the outermost supports, while the

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compression is carried to the foundations beneath the central towers. Many truss cantilev er bridges use
pinned joints and are therefore statically determinate with no members carry ing mix ed loads.

Prestressed concrete balanced cantilev er bridges are often built using segmental construction.

Construction methods
Some steel arch bridges (such as the Nav ajo Bridge) are built using pure cantilev er spans from each side, with
neither falsework below nor temporary supporting towers and cables abov e. These are then joined with a pin,
usually after forcing the union point apart, and when jacks are remov ed and the bridge decking is added the
bridge becomes a truss arch bridge. Such unsupported construction is only possible where appropriate rock
is av ailable to support the tension in the upper chord of the span during construction, usually limiting this
method to the spanning of narrow cany ons.

List by length
World's longest cantilev er bridges (by longest span):[5]

1. Quebec Bridge (Quebec, Canada, 1917) 1,800 feet (549 m)

2. Forth Bridge (Firth of Forth, Scotland, 1890) 2 x 1,710 feet (521 m)
3. Minato Bridge (Osaka, Japan, 1973) 1,673 feet (510 m)
4. Commodore Barry Bridge (Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, 1974) 1,644 feet (501 m)
5. Crescent City Connection (dual spans) (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 1958 and 1988) 1,575 feet (480 m)
6. Howrah Bridge (Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 1943) 1,500 feet (457 m)
7. Gramercy Bridge (Gramercy, Louisiana, USA, 1995) 1,460 feet (445 m)
8. Tokyo Gate Bridge (Tokyo, Japan, 2012) 1,443 feet (440 m)
9. J. C. Van Horne Bridge (Campbellton, New Brunswick & Pointe--la-Croix, Quebec, Canada, 1961) 1,247 feet
(380 m)
10. Horace Wilkinson Bridge (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, 1968) 1,235 feet (376 m)
11. Tappan Zee Bridge (South Nyack, New York & Tarrytown, New York, USA, 1955) 1,212 feet (369 m)
12. Lewis and Clark Bridge (Longview, Washington & Rainier, Oregon, USA, 1930) 1,200 feet (366 m)

Examples

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The Quebec Bridge is of the general structure demonstrated above.

The Forth Bridge with its three The Vejle Fjord Bridge is a concrete bridge built using the balanced
double cantilevers. cantilever method.

Former eastern span of

the San Francisco -
Oakland Bay Bridge

Howrah Bridge, Kolkata

Original 1938 span of the Pulaski Skyway Vicksburg Bridge and Old
Blue Water Bridge Vicksburg Bridge

References
1. DuBois, Augustus Jay (1902). The Mechanics of Engineering (https://books.google.com/?id=b-YeAAAAMAAJ).
New York: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
2. Bender, C. (1890). "Discussion on Cantilever Bridges by C.F. Findlay" (https://books.google.com/?id=3RIOAAA
AYAAJ). Transactions of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers . Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. 3.
Retrieved 2008-08-10.
3. DeLony, Eric (1996). "Context for World Heritage Bridges" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050221084235/http://w

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11/23/2017 Cantilever bridge - Wikipedia
ww.icomos.org/studies/bridges.htm). World Heritage Sites . International Council on Monuments and Sites.
Archived from the original (http://www.icomos.org/studies/bridges.htm) on 2005-02-21. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
4. Waddell, J.A.L. (1916). Bridge Engineering - Volume 2 (https://books.google.com/?id=bxAkAAAAMAAJ). New
York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 1917. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
5. Durkee, Jackson (1999-05-24). National Steel Bridge Alliance: World's Longest Bridge Spans (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20020601114245/http://www.aisc.org/Content/ContentGroups/Documents/NSBA5/20_NSBA_Longest
Spans.PDF) (PDF). American Institute of Steel Construction, Inc. Archived from the original (http://www.aisc.org/
Content/ContentGroups/Documents/NSBA5/20_NSBA_LongestSpans.PDF) (PDF) on 2002-06-01. Retrieved
2007-11-03.

External links
"Cantilever Bridge" (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/CantileverBridge/) by Sndor Kabai, The Wolfram
Demonstrations Project, 2007.
Bridges Their Structure and Function (http://www.brantacan.co.uk/bridges.htm), Brantacan
Biggest of Finished Girders Go Traveling: six giants of 70 tons gave engineers a hard nut to crack , Popular
Science monthly, February 1919, page 79, Scanned by Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?
id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA79
"Bridge, Cantilever". The New Student's Reference Work . 1914.

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