THE NORWEGIAN APPROACH

TO MODERN TIMBER BRIDGE DESIGN

Tormod Dyken, Principal Engineer, Otto Kleppe, Chief Engineer,
Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Norway

Abstract
The timber bridge design seems to have developed differently in various countries based on
different traditions and conditions. During recent years, an increasing number of timber bridges
have been constructed in Norway. This paper describes the present trend in timber bridge
construction in Norway and in particular, some of the solutions, which have been developed in
order to obtain sufficient service life. Furthermore, some typical examples of Norwegian timber
bridges are presented, showing to what a considerable extent timber is adopting as a bridge
constructions material in Norway.
Keywords:

Timber structures, bridges, service life, detailing.

Introduction
Up to the twentieth century, timber was the prevailing bridge construction material in Norway.
Particularly, in the last half of the nineteenth century the activity and the number of different types
of timber bridges increased. Bolt laminated arch bridges, impregnated with wood tar, cod liver oil
or linseed oil and covered by board cladding, became very popular. Some of them lasted for more
than a 100 years.
Although some pedestrian timber bridges were constructed in the nineteen seventies, the
renaissance of the timber bridges in Norway started with the planning and construction of the sports
centres for the Olympic winter games at Lillehammer in 1994. The organizing committee aimed to
be environmental friendly by extensive use of natural materials like stone and timber. In the same
period, new, reliable construction methods in timber construction were developed making it
possible to introduce new structural solutions.
Different from most other countries, the main portion of the development of timber bridges in
Norway took place within the Public Roads Administration. The reason was that the Public Roads
Administration saw an economic potential in the existence of a third alternative for bridge building

materials, and had the necessary financial and personnel capacity to carry out various development
activities.
A significant contribution to the development of the timber bridge technology was given by the
Nordic Timber Bridge Project. The project started in 1965 and was a joint research project that
comprised research institutes and industrial participants in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.
The objective was to make wood a competitive alternative to the traditional bridge construction
materials, concrete and steel, by removing some of the negative myths about timber bridges and
provide knowledge about timber as a bridges construction material.

Figure 1: A more than 100 year old bridge across river Finna in Lom, Oppland

Figure 2: Tynset Bridge crossing the upper part of the river Glomma in Hedmark
(2001)

The Norwegian approach to modern timber bridge design

The most observable characteristics of Norwegian timber bridges are the visible end readable load
carrying structure and the significant portion of steel. It indicates a quite pragmatic approach to the
selection of materials. Timber is not chosen at any cost. Hangers and cross girders have generally
been made of steel because it has proven to be appropriate. In the same way, it has proven to be
adequate to use timber for other parts of the superstructure and concrete for the foundation. The
basic philosophy has been to choose the appropriate material for each part of the structure. In this
way, timber bridges have proven to be economically competitive with steel- and concrete bridges in
a number of cases.

Figure 3: Dalersen Bridge crossing E 134 near Drammen (2001)

The design service life for bridges in Norway is 100 years according to the bridge design rules
given by Norwegian Public Roads Administration. All permanent bridges should have a design
service life of 100 years, even the pedestrian bridges. In order to meet this requirement special
efforts are necessary for timber structures as well as for structures of other materials. Furthermore,
the required extent of maintenance has to be on a reasonable low level and it is not acceptable that
the main part of the structure has to be replaced during the service life because of deterioration.

To fulfil the service life requirements an obvious solution would have been to cover the bridge by
walls and roof according to old timber bridge traditions. However, that would not have complied
with the present Norwegian ideals for timber bridges, and, in addition, walls and roof does not
provide the same protection as it used to because of the water spray from modern traffic on wet
roads.
What could be called the Norwegian approach to modern timber bridge building is mainly founded
on the following pillars:

The glue lamination technique in combination with slotted-in steel plates in the joints, used

for the main load carrying structure

The stress lamination technique used for the bridge deck

The use of steel in members where steel is more efficient

The use of creosote treatment frequently in combination with CCA treatment

Metal cladding of the upper surface of all principal members

Glue laminated timber gives the designer extensive possibilities to shape the material according to
his ideas. An excellent example of this is the Leonardo da Vinci Bridge that is shaped according to
the visions of the artist Vebjrn Sand. The three glulam timber arches were first modelled by the
artist and the complex geometry then transferred to CAD drawings. Finally, the coordinates of a
fine mesh on the spherical surface of the arches were calculated and a computer controlled grinding
machine fed by the data file. Without the utilisation of computer technique, the forming of the
complex shape would hardly have been possible.

Figure 4: Shaping of glue laminated timber arches with triangular cross section and
spherical surfaces

Figure 5: Leonardo da Vinci Bridge across E 18 near Oslo (2001)

The traditional bridge decks of timber, built up of beams, joists and planks, were used until about
1995. They are normally too flexible for the application of an asphalt wearing course. The asphalt
tends to crack along the planks and allows water penetration through the deck, leading to a much
too short service life.
The stress laminated timber deck see Figure 6, first introduced in Canada in the mid seventies,
behaves as a homogenous, orthotropic plate and solves the problem with cracking of the wearing
course. The most important improvements compared to the earlier solutions were the prolonged
service life of the deck and the reduced production costs. The stress laminated deck also made it
possible to have a waterproof layer on top of the timber and to apply the same durable asphalt
surface layer as on the adjacent road. The most reliable waterproofing has proved to be bituminous
mastic that is applied in liquid condition at about 250C and with a layer thickness of 10 15 mm.

Figure 6: Stress laminated timber deck

The effect of a massive slab is achieved solely by friction between the lamellas. In order to establish
the required friction, pre-stressing tendons, normally 15 mm diameter high strength steel bars, at a
distance of typically 600 mm is used. The stressing force is governed by the limitation of contact
pressure underneath the anchor plate see Figure 7.

Figure 7:

Anchorage of the prestressing bars

Figure 8: Truss joint with slotted-in plates under production

The main structure frequently consists of heavy glulam elements; composed of several glulam
beams glued together Figure 9. The elements are normally treated with creosote and protected
against weathering by a copper cladding at the top surface as can be seen on Figure 3. When using
multi beam elements as described above, a double treatment with both CCA-salt impregnation of
lamellas and a creosote impregnation of the final member is common.

Figure 9: Arches made up of four glued together glulam beams

Timber bridges in Norway are designed with timber in the main structure and in the bridge deck,
but in other parts like joints, hangers, bearings and crossbeams steel is used. In order to provide
lateral support for the compression arch, the steel material in the cross beams and in the hangers is
utilized to form a frame. The posts for the safety barriers are attached to the cross beams as well.
The movements of the timber structure in longitudinal direction due to temperature and moisture
have showed to be very small. Timber decks, thus, are normally designed without dilatation joints.
The free temperature movement is about half of that for a concrete bridge and is easily reduced by
restraint due to the low E-modulus of wood. The Evenstad Bridge, for instance, with its 180 m
deck, is constructed without dilatation joints. The actual movement, estimated from visual
observation of the crack in the asphalt course, is about 15 mm.
All connections are designed with slotted in plates, placed inside the timber element both to avoid
ingress of water between steel plates and the timber and to protect the steel from corrosion. In
addition to the protection by the wood itself, the steel plates are hot dip galvanised and epoxy
powder coated as they are not easy to inspect. The dowels are of acid-proof stainless steel. There
are no visible steel parts at the exterior of the timber as can be seen from Figure 10. In combination
with copper cladding on the top surface, these joints are considered very durable.

Figure 10: Steel cross beam and hangers forming a stiffening frame for lateral support
of the arch

Figure 11: Evenstad Bridge crossing the river Glomma (1996). Total length 180 m

Various types of timber bridges in Norway

In recent years there have been constructed a large variety of timber bridges in Norway, spanning
from small plate bridges with a span of a few metres up to bridges like Kjrra Bridge with its 92
meter span (Figure 14). For spans the stress laminated slab has proved to be efficient. The depth of
the slab is typically 200 mm and the span between cross beams is about 5 m.
For larger spans, the stress-laminated deck is made up of glulam beams or planks. Figure 12 shows
a one span slab bridge. The slab is made up of glulam beams with depth of about 300 mm. There
are no real bearings as the slab is simply supported on two layer of bitumen felt. So far, only one
such bridge has been built. However, some similar, three spans, railroad cross over bridges have
been built recently and more are under way, as the concept has proved to be very cost efficient.

Figure 12: Stress laminated slab made up of glulam beams (Mattisdammen Bridge, 2000)
Figure 13 shows the Grylla Bridge, which has a beam height of about 1.2 m and a span of 10 m.
The bridge was constructed in 1997. This beam bridge is built up of stress-laminated planks with
seven glulam beams in between. The tension rods are stressed as for ordinary stress laminated
decks. The size of the planks in the deck is 48x198 mm.

Figure 13: Grylla Bridge (1997). Beam bridge with stress laminated deck
Figure 14 shows Kjrra Footbridge with its total length of 132 meters and a mid span of 92 meters.
The bridge is built up of two cantilevered triangles on each abutment and a mid section of 66
meters. The bridge has been built in order to facilitate salmon fishing from both shores.

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Figure 14: Kjrra Footbridge crossing the river Numedalslgen(2001) Main span 92 m
Figure 15 shows the Beston Bridge, a king post road bridge with a 198 mm stress laminated plank
deck. It is constructed two of those and they are not expensive. The design of the king post bridges
is inspired by old, traditional bridge design, but including new technology. They are designed for
one lane vehicle traffic.

Figure 15: Beston Bridge on a forestry road crossing main road 23, the Oslo Fjord
Connection (1999)

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The strut frame is made of glulam timber beams, consisting of three beams, which are glued
together and with the topside covered by zinc cladding. The bridge deck is a stress laminated slab
supported by steel cross girders. The king post and the cross girder are forming a U-shaped steel
frame and thus supporting the inclined struts sideways. The bridge is constructed for timber trucks.
The centre span is 20.2m and the total length is 25m. The bridge is constructed in year 1999. All
together, three king post bridges are built recently.
Nearly all arch bridges have three hinges and multi-beam arch elements. Sometimes, the middle
hinge is nearly fixed, i.e., connected with slotted in steel plates with dowels. The connection will
allow some rotation due to deformation at the dowel holes. The footing at the abutments consists of
a bottom plate with welded, slotted in steel plates and a ordinary hinge at the other end.
Figure 16 shows Fnhus Bridge, a road bridge with a centre span of 28 m and a total length of
35.5 m. It was constructed in 1998. In Norway, we have only one of this arch road bridges with load
bearing element underneath the deck. The cost is competitive with concrete bridges.

Figure 16: Fnhus Bridge crossing river Begna in Valdres, Oppland (1998)
The truss bridges are for larger spans. The members are connected with slots in steel plates and
dowels. For the bridge shown on Figure 11, Evenstad Bridge, the dimension of the upper girder is
420 x 466 mm. This bridge was constructed in 1996 and has five spans, each of 36 m. The total
length of the timber deck is 180 m. The bridge deck has a Topeka mastic waterproof membrane and
an asphalt-wearing course. This was the first truss road bridge of this kind that has been built in

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timber now the next one is just finished. That is Flisa Bridge, also crossing the river Glomma
further downstream.
Figure 2 shows Tynset Bridge, which was opened in June 2001. The main span at this bridge is an
arch truss. Tynset Bridge crosses the river Glomma as well. The bridge is 126 m long and
comprises three spans with a main span of 70m. Maximum height above the bridge deck is 17 m.
The carriageway has a waterproof layer and an asphalt-wearing course while the sidewalk has
timber plank as wearing course without waterproof layer. The bridge consists of about 600 m3 of
timber

Closure
One may say that timber has now become a current alternative to concrete and steel as a bridge
construction material in Norway. There is a considerable number timber bridges constructed last
years. The variety of structural systems is amazing. It seems that the introduction of timber has
inspired the bridge designers to try out various systems and to put more weight on aesthetics. This
is a good development making the design of smaller bridges more interesting.
It has been made much effort on constructing durable bridges. The hope and belief is that most of
them shall serve their purpose in more than hundred years. The answer lies in the future.

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