<p>Many years of experience of design and maintenance of bridges shows that movement structures are among the more expensive as far as maintenance costs are concerned. These structures are the so-called mechanical ones and require regular maintenance from time to time, or part or full replacement.</p>
<p>The design philosophy should therefore be based on:</p>
<ul>
<li>as few as possible movement structures</li>
<li>long durability</li>
<li>easy to maintain and replace</li>
</ul>
<p>This paper describes:</p>
<p>Typical movement structures like expansion joints, bearings, hydraulic and mechanical dampers and cable support arrangements that allow movements.</p>
<p>General arrangements of the articulation systems of some major bridges relating to the above mentioned design philosophies.</p>
<p>Installation, operation and maintenance experiences.</p>
<p>Special features in connection with replacement of the Teflon sliding disks in spherical bearings after 22 years of use.</p>
<p>Experience from replacement of a 35-year-old roller shutter expansion joint with a new water tight modular type on a suspension bridge.</p>
<p>Challenges in the future.</p>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.