BOOK REVIEW / CRITIQUE DE LIVRE

Book Review: Recent Advances in Bridge

Engineering
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Aftab Mufti, Badiar Bakht, and Leslie Jaeger
This text book is perhaps unusual in that I found it enjoy-
able to read. It is unusual in other respects, too, as will be de-
scribed. The authors intended readership is their fellow
engineers, especially in Asian countries and it is also in-
tended to be of assistance in teaching post-graduate studies.
In fact, the contents of the book provide advances in
bridge engineering that likely do not appear in coherent
book form elsewhere, and at least some of the topics should
be useful to many bridge engineers. The authors write with
authority, as they have direct personal experience with all of
the subjects covered, either as researchers or as practicing
engineers. The book is well written about important subject
matter for bridge engineers.
The book does not attempt to cover all aspects of bridge
engineering. Instead it covers, as the title suggests, recent
advances in certain important areas typically not found in
other publications, advances that were very much driven by
Canadian engineers.
One major subject is the design of steel-free decks. It is
now known that conventional concrete decks with steel rein-
forcing often sustain damage caused by corrosion of the
steel bars. Deck replacement is expensive, even discounting
the very real societal cost caused by traffic delays during
renovation. However, the situation is worsening because un-
like earlier bridges, the concrete deck is often an integral
part of the bridge, such as the top flange of a main
load-carrying member, as in a post-tensioned concrete box
girder. The possibility of using non-corroding fibre-reinforced
polymers instead of steel is an attractive alternative, so far not
well understood by the profession. The subject is well cov-
ered in Chapter 8.
The first chapter explains how bridge design codes are
written, with particular reference to determining design live
loads and load factors. While few engineers are routinely en-
gaged in this activity (except for the target part of the reader-
ship that is developing bridge design codes in Asia), it is
often useful to understand why the code is written the way it
is so that when situations occur that are not directly covered
by the bridge design codes, some guidance is available.
Chapter 2 is on Analysis by Manual Calculation. But
surely all analysis these days is performed by computer?
Perhaps, but a reality check by manual methods can often
provide a very useful review.
Chapter 3 covers Analysis by Computer. The ideas are
good, but I suspect that any writing on this subject will be
the first to experience obsolescence.
The fourth chapter is a comprehensive treatment of
Arching Action in Deck Slabs. The discovery that the ubiq-
uitous concrete bridge deck actually resists loads by arching
action rather than by bending, and the ramifications of this
behaviour in terms of both potential economy and the need
to revise design methods, are major developments in bridge
engineering pioneered by Canadian engineers, including the
authors. All bridge engineers should understand this topic.
Cantilever Slabs, which do not act by arching, are covered
in Chapter 5.
Chapter 6 provides good ideas and practical information
from the authors experience. Although few wood bridges are
constructed these days, there are still a number in service or
in remote areas that can usefully have their lives extended.
For relatively short spans, soilsteel structures can be
much more economical than conventional beam-and-column
bridges, and Chapter 7 is a useful guide to the design and
construction of such structures.
Chapter 9 on Structural Health Monitoring is not an esoteric
dissertation on instrumentation, but a pragmatic review of what
can be gained from some generally fairly simple sets of load
tests and measurements, and why such testing is of value.
Chapter 10 provides some thought-provoking ideas on
Bridge Aesthetics. There are no recipes, but there is an invi-
tation to raise consciousness of beauty and the contribution
of a bridge to the aesthetics of its environment.
Finally, Chapter 11 gives an introduction to Computer
Graphics.
All-in-all, it is a book that should be in any bridge engi-
neers library.
Peter G. Buckland, C.M., P. Eng.
Buckland & Taylor Ltd.
101-788 Harbourside Drive
North Vancouver, BC V7P 3R7, Canada
837
Can. J. Civ. Eng. 36: 837 (2009) doi:10.1139/L09-064 Published by NRC Research Press
Received 8 April 2009. Revision accepted 8 April 2009. Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at cjce.nrc.ca on 26 May
2009.
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JMBT Structures Research Inc., 21 Whiteleaf Crescent, Scarborough, ON M1V 3G1, Canada. ISBN: 978-0-98110255-0-6.