Editorial

Abstract

We know that bridge engineering requires a wide range of skills and knowledge. It is a given that an advanced knowledge of structural form and analysis is required. However, bridge engineers also need to be aware of the diverse range of current practice and developments around the world. They need to keep abreast of the latest research and how this might be applied to improve both their design of new bridges and management of existing bridges. Of course, knowledge of innovative and feasible methods for construction is essential. They also need to be informed in the latest developments in construction materials. It is equally important to understand how existing bridge designs behave and what techniques are available to monitor this behaviour. Finally, the bridge engineer needs to have a historical perspective in order to understand why their predecessors chose the structural designs and applied the construction methods that were applied to create the existing stock of bridges.This issue of Bridge Engineering includes six technical papers that cover all of the above diverse aspects of bridge engineering. The geographic spread of the authors contributing to this issue clearly demonstrates the truly international nature of bridge engineering as well as the readership of the ICE Proceedings.In the first paper, Donnelly and Wise (2015) describe the design and construction of the South Highway Superway project in Adelaide, South Australia. This 4·8 km-long highway scheme includes 2·8 km of elevated viaducts. The balanced cantilever method is employed to construct the match cast concrete segmental deck through a very tight site corridor. A particularly interesting feature of this design is the use of steel needle beam expansion joints that eliminate the need for large bearings below the deck. This development should yield long-term benefits for reduced maintenance costs.The distribution of patch loading applied to bridge decks onto adjacent supports, such as wheel loads on highway bridges, is an area where bridge engineers have always had to apply engineering judgement. In the second paper, Lantsoght et al. (2015) investigate both an approximate spreadsheet method and a more rigorous numerical analysis using a linear finite element method, based on Dutch practice. Results are compared to experimental measurements and they are able to conclude that the peak shear stress at the support can be distributed over an easy to apply width of four effective depths of the slab.