Gilbert River Bridge: Design and Construction

This document provides an overview of the design and construction of Gilbert River Bridge in Beauce Quebec. It discusses the challenges faced, the solution implemented, and the engineering problems encountered. The bridge is a 326-meter structure that was erected over the Gilbert River and the 34th Street in Notre-Dame-des-Pins. The conceptual design process, stakeholder needs, and system requirements are also discussed.

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SYSTEM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
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GILBERT RIVER BRIDGE
Introduction
Gilbert Bridge is constructed in the highway 73 extension in Beauce Quebec, the bridge is a 326
meters (1070ft) structure which was erected 52meters (170ft) over the Gilbert River and the 34th
Street in the Notre-Dame –des-Pins, Beauce Quebec. The Gilbert Bridge has eight lines of
girders, and each of the element measuring 3.4 meters 11ft) weighing up approximately 48 tons
each piece (Brown, 2018, p. 435).
Planning and designing of bridges is part art and part compromises, the most important aspect of
structural engineering. Bridge designing is the manifestations of the creative capability of the
designers to demonstrate their innovations, imagination, and explorations. The main purpose of
the conceptual design during the bridge design is to find the most appropriate solution for the
construction of the bridge. In order to the optimal solution, all relevant stakeholders’ needs are
considered at the forefront and a range of are examined (Shahawy, 2018, p. 219).
Stakeholder needs
Challenge/need
The highway where the bridge was to be constructed is extremely elevated where it is compared
to the river and the embankments are very steep (Brown, 2018, p. 132). With each of the piers
standing 30m to 50 meters high, have been very challenging and at the same very conventionally
by make use of cranes positioned along the river and erecting the girders one by one on
temporary supports. Moreover, workers safety was another concern which had taken into
consideration as working at such considerable height by applying the traditional approach would
have greatly increased the risks of hazards and accidents (Alex S. George, 2016, p. 776).

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Solution
Considering the above-mentioned requirements (factors), the launched girder erection was
selected (Gartner, 2017, p. 98). During the first stage, four lines of the girders were assembled
behind an abutment which was located to the North and then launched into place by utilizing
different equipment which was supplied by the Canam-Bridges; the same equipment which had
been supplied for the construction of the North Channel Bridge project in Ontario. (Mattews,
2016, p. 762)
The second stage of the erection of the girders was carried out in the same way to the first phase.
The four remaining lines were assembled behind abutment which was to the north and afterward
launched by utilizing equipment supplied by Canam-Bridges (Kim, 2014, p. 12). During the
launching procedures, the distance that the assemblies could achieve was 18mters per hour which
was including the needed stops and the verification and with conditions, the four girder lines
were launched close to 100 meters during a good workday (Mallett, 2018, p. 144). The launching
distance was not increased as per the speed that was established , the team that was involved in
the construction spent approximately two weeks to assemble the girders, bracing each other
and the required steel components that were located behind the abutment to the North (harrif,
2011, p. 431).

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Fig1: Aerial view of the launch (Alex S. George, 2016, p. 342)
Conceptual design process
The entire design process of Gilbert River Bridge was divided into 4 stages i.e. conceptual
design, detailed design, construction design and preliminary design (Mattews, 2016, p. 89). The
purpose of the conceptual design was to come up with the different feasible bridge schemes and
to select on one of the final concepts and finally to work on it to meet the stakeholder's needs.
The purpose of the detailed design was to finalize of the bridge structure so that the documents
were sufficient for construction and tendering process. The construction design was to give a
step-by-step procedure for construction (Gartner, 2017, p. 218).
The main purpose of the conceptual design during the design of the Gilbert River Bridge was to
find the most appropriate solution for the construction of the bridge. In order to the optimal
solution, all relevant stakeholders’ needs were considered at the forefront and a range of was
examined. The optimal solution provided the most value of all the alternatives that were
considered. Balancing, functionality, lifecycle costs and performance (Pritchard, 2017, p. 776).
The final outcome of the bridge conceptual design:

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o Provided functionality for the entire life cycle of Gilbert River Bridge
o Offered enough preliminary design data on the optimal bridge concepts to start a detailed
design stage.
o Documented the data, constraints and the design parameters that were used
o Documented all the alternatives that were considered, and the decisions that were made in
developing the recommended plan (Johns, 2017, p. 78).
The conceptual design process of Gilbert River Bridge was carried out as follows’
a) Process overview
The final product of the Gilbert River Bridge design stage, typically a design report, the start of
the structural design process. The main procedure that was involved in the Gilbert River Bridge
conceptual design were:
b) Data collection
o All the pertinent data for crossing the site, stream, existing structures were assembled.
o All the highway future plans were identified
c) Site inspection
o The site was visited, all the measurements and observations were recorded.
o The upstream and downstream crossings were included
o All the preliminary location options were identified.
d) Arrangement for technical input (Gartner, 2017, p. 554)
The site survey was ordered to submit their GIS data sets
An arrangement for the geotechnical investigation was done

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An environmental data regulatory inputs were ordered where requirements, coverage was
confirmed.
Arrangement for other input required such as operations, highway planning, etc.
e) Hydro technical Assessment
Assessing of existing structures
Determination of the Hydro technical design parameters
Identification of hydro-technical issues (Alex S. George, 2016, p. 624)
f) Geometric Assessments
Assessment of the existing geometry issues
Determination of the geometrical design parameters
Identification of the future plans i.e. Functional plans, bridge widening potential, etc.
g) Review of technical inputs
Checking survey for completeness and accuracy, update as necessary
Recording of geotechnical recommendations for the head slopes, slide mitigation, and the pile
penetration (Johns, 2017, p. 239)
Recording all the environmental constraints I.e. Fish passage, restricted activity periods and run
off qualities.
h) Development of feasible options
This involved the coordination with the concurrent highway geometric design

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Combining alignment, bridge profile and the protection options to develop potential concepts
The undertaking of hydraulic analysis options
Sketching of key components i.e. bridge profile. Alignment, bridge opening.
i) Evaluation of options
o All the available feasible options were listed and evaluated
o Obtain structural reviews and the input from other sources
o Identification of the best option (Shahawy, 2018, p. 862).
System requirements
The system requirement for the Gilbert River Bridge involves the different bridge component
design requirements.
i) Foundation design
The system requirement for the design and construction of the Gilbert River Bridge included the
design methodology, design documentation, geotechnical investigation. Pile testing etc. All the
foundation requirement were according to the Transport and main road Geotechnical Design
Standards (Pritchard, 2017, p. 338).
.
ii) Abutment design
There were two forms of abutments that were used in the Gilbert River Bridge.
a) Spill-through abutments
b) Wing-wall abutments, this includes the vertical-wall abutment

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The spill-through abutment was characterized by the sloped sides, while the wing-wall abutment
was characterized with a vertical face together with wing wall which is used to retain an earth fill
approach embankment. The wing wall has the ability to be oriented in many different angles and
positions to the central panel of the abutment, even if a 45o angle is a representative. A wing wall
abutment having wing-angles at 90o to its central panel is sometimes referred to as a vertical-wall
abutment, and it was commonly used in the construction of small abutments. The sheet-pile
caissons which extend into the channel are also viewed as a type of the vertical-wall abutment.
Different other names for two forms that will be used exist (harrif, 2011, p. 675).
iii) Pile driving
The piles for the Gilbert River Bridge were cast-in-situ. In this approach, a steel casing piles with
a shoe at the bottom was first driven to the required depth. The reinforcement cage for
reinforcing was then lowered inside the casting and then concrete was poured inside. As the
concrete continued to fill the pile cage, the casing was withdrawn keeping a suitable overlapping
length. The moment such piles were driven in soft soil and the tube was withdrawn when the
concrete was being poured it affected the resistance and then changed the property of the soil and
this also had a great impact on the capacity of the individual piles (Johns, 2017, p. 237).
Engineering problems encountered
Roche-CIMA +Consortium was in charge of all engineering work during the design and
construction of Gilbert River Bridge. Given the length of the bridge, the number of spans and the
pier height, regular meetings were held from the start of the project to ensure that the best
solutions were selected and the specification that was comprising all other requirements which

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would permit high-quality outcome. Some of the engineering challenges that were faced during
the design and construction of the project include;
i) Durability and Optimal design of piers
The team which was in charge of engineering works established the height of the piers and then
validated its calculations qualified contractors to ensure the optimization and feasibility of the
rebar and formwork joints. A concept was then developed which was having a minimum number
of joints. The huge amount of concrete which and been poured led to the team establishing
accurate criteria and requirement to limit cracking and ensure the durability of the underlying
structure (Mallett, 2018, p. 89).
ii) The positioning of the Rebars
With the structural efforts being in place, it was necessary to use large quantities of intersecting
rebars. With that, the engineering team created a 3 dimension model showing the position of the
rebars in the footing as well as the areas of the piers and the crossbeams in order to ensure that
the concrete was poured by the use of traditional pumps without the occurrence of segregation.
iii) Designing of the superstructure for the launched-Girder Erection
Roche company which was in charge of all engineering works considered many scenarios for the
positioning of the girders and their transportation to the construction site. The launched –girder
erection method required that a lot of analysis to be carried out in order to ensure that different
references values, such as the bearing reactions and the girder deformations, etc. were available
when they were required. The engineering team elaborated launching scenario in compliance
with CAN/CSA-S6-06 in order to ensure that the contractor would submit a launching scenario
which was challenging to validate (Kim, 2014, p. 76).

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Conclusion
Gilbert Bridge is constructed in the highway 73 extension in Beauce Quebec, the bridge is a 326
meters (1070ft) structure which was erected 52meters (170ft) over the Gilbert River and the 34th
Street in the Notre-Dame –des-Pins, Beauce Quebec. The main purpose of the conceptual design
during the design of the Gilbert River Bridge was to find the most appropriate solution for the
construction of the bridge (Johns, 2017, p. 98). In order to develop all relevant stakeholders,
needs were considered at the forefront and a range of feasible alternatives were examined. The
highway where the bridge was to be constructed is extremely elevated where it is compared to
the river and the embankments are very steep. With each of the piers standing 30meters to 50
meters high, it would have been very challenging and at the same very conventionally by make
use of cranes positioned along the river and erecting the girders one by one on temporary
supports (Mallett, 2018, p. 32)..

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References
Brown, B. C., 2018. Extending the Life of Bridges. 1st ed. London: ASTM International,.
Link:
https://books.google.co.ke/books?
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&ved=0ahUKEwi3jvjep6fiAhWo4YUKHZoiAFsQ6AEIKDAA
Johns, M., 2017. Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems to Limit Traffic Disruption During
Construction. 4th ed. Chicago: Transportation Research Board,.
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+Limit+Traffic+Disruption+During+Construction.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUkNDxp6fi
AhVOyoUKHUSGBN4Q6AEIKDAAKim, Y. J., 2014. Advanced Composites in Bridge
Construction and Repair. 2nd ed. Kiev: Elsevier Science.
Mallett, P., 2018. Repair of Concrete Bridges. 7th ed. London: Thomas Telford.
Link:

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https://books.google.co.ke/books?
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link
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+Strengthened+and+Replacement+Bridges.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit3rCvqKfiAhVNKx
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During Construction. 3rd ed. London: Transportation Research Board.
Link:

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https://books.google.co.ke/books?
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+Limit+Traffic+Disruption+During+Construction.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiw0vmlp6fiA
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