JTG

Industry standard of the People’s Republic of China JTG B01—2003

Technical Standard of Highway Engineering

Issued on 01-29-2004 Implemented on 03-01-2004

ssued by Ministry of Communications of the People’s Republic of China
 Bridges and Culverts

5 Bridges and Culverts

5.0.1 General Specifications
1 Bridges shall be designed synthetically based on the function, class, capacity and flood
and disaster protection requirements and according to conditions of hydrology, geology,
navigation and environment.

2 Bridge sites of super-long- and long-span bridges shall be at sections where the channel
is straight and stable, the river bed is geologically good, major part of the design stream
can pass through the channel. Terrain with bad geological conditions such as broken
course, karst cave, landslide and debris flow shall be avoided.

3 Design of bridges shall comply with the principle of being safe, suitable for use,
economical, artistic and be beneficial to environment protection. Factors such as
suiting the local conditions, be beneficial to construction, getting local materials and
maintenance shall be considered as well.

4 The design of bridges shall combine with the basic construction of farmland, and the
requirement of irrigation and drainage shall be considered.

5 Landscape design shall be carried out for super-long-span bridges; bridge overpasses
freeway or first-class highway shall be in harmony with natural
environment and landscape.

6 Structure of bridges shall be designed synthetically taking bridge deck pavement into
account. Good waterproofing and drainage system shall be set up for bridge deck
pavement.

7 Bridge with standardized spans shall adopt fabricated structure, mechanization and
factory based construction.

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Technical Standard of Highway Engineering (JTG B01—2003)

5.0.2 Classification of bridges and culverts is specified in Table 5.0.2.

Table 5.0.2 Classification of bridges and culverts

Classification of bridges and culverts Total length of multiple spans/L(m) Single span /Lk(m)

Super-long-span bridge L>1000 Lk>150

Long-span bridge 100≤L≤1000 40≤Lk≤150
Medium-span bridge 30<L<100 20≤Lk<40
Short-span bridge 8≤L≤30 5≤Lk<20
Culvert —— Lk<5

Notes： ① Single span refers to the standard span.

② Total length of multiple spans of beam bridge or slab bridge is the total length of the standard
spans of multiple spans; that of arch bridge is the length between the two springing lines of
the two abutment; that of other bridges is lane length of bridge decking
③ All pipe culverts and box culverts no matter how long their pipe diameters or spans are and
no matter how many their spans are called culverts.
④ Standard span: for beam bridge or slab bridge, it is length between the center lines of two
piers or the length between a pier center line and abutment back’s front edge line; for arc
bridges and culverts, it is clear span.

5.0.3 Total length of bridge: for bridges with abutment, it is the length between the side walls
or rears of flare wing walls of the two abutments; for bridges without abutment, it is
length of bridge decking.
Where the span of bridges and culverts is less than or equal to 50m, standardized spans
shall be adopted.

Specification for standardized spans of bridges and culverts are as follows:

0.75m,1.0m,1.25m,1.5m,2.0m,2.5m,3.0m,4.0m,5.0m,6.0m,8.0m,10m,13m,16m,20m,2
5m,30m,35m,40m,45m,50m.

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 Bridges and Culverts

5.0.4 Design flood frequency shall meet the requirements specified in Table 5.0.4.

Table 5.0.4 Design flood frequency for bridges and culverts

Design flood frequency

Highway Class
super-long
long-span medium-spa short-span culverts and mini-type
-span
bridge n bridge bridge drainage structure
bridge
Freeway 1/300 1/100 1/100 1/100 1/100
First-class highway 1/300 1/100 1/100 1/100 1/100
Second-class highway 1/100 1/100 1/100 1/50 1/50
Third-class highway 1/100 1/50 1/50 1/25 1/25
Forth-class highway 1/100 1/50 1/50 1/25 no requirement

1 For super-long-span bridges on second-class highway or long-span bridges on third- and

fourth-class highways, the design flood frequency may be upgraded by one grade to check
the scouring depth of foundation where the flow is turbulent and the river bed is apt to be
scoured.
2 Design flood frequency of elevated bridges and approaches of bridges along the river shall
meet the requirement of design flood frequency for subgrade specified in provision 4.0.2
in this standard.

5.0.5 Clearance of bridge deck shall meet the specifications in provision 2.0.7 of this standard,
and the following requirements shall be met:
1 For super-long-span bridges on freeway or first-glass highway, where the superstructure
is monolithic, width of central strip and shoulder may be reduced properly. However, the
width after reduction shall not be shall not be smaller than the “minimum value”
specified in Table 3.0.4 and Table 3.0.5-1 of this standard.
2 Facilities such as pipe lines on bridges shall not intrude into limit building space of
highways.

5.0.6 Under bridge clearance shall meet the following specifications:

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Technical Standard of Highway Engineering (JTG B01—2003)

1 For navigational rivers or rivers with drifting log-craft, under bridge clearance shall meet
the requirements of navigation standard and log-craft drifting.
2 Under bridge clearance of fly-over bridges shall meet the specification of building space
limit for highway, railway and other roads which are intersected.
3 Other situations such as flood drainage, floating ice, drifting subject, ice jam, etc. shall be
considered for under bridge clearance.

5.0.7 Plane, longitudinal and cross section technical index of bridges and approaches shall be
in harmony with general alignment layout.
Grade of bridges shall not be greater than 4%; that of approaches shall not be greater
than 5%.
When the bridges are in city or town where traffic is crowded, grade of both bridges and
approaches shall not be greater than 3%.
Both bridge approaches shall be in coordination with alignment of the bridge.

5.0.8 Design of ferry and wharf shall meet the following requirements:
1 Site of ferry shall be chosen at river section where the river bed is stable, hydraulics
and hydrology state is suitable and without or with little aggradations.
2 Grade of straight wharf approach shall adopt 9% to 10%; that of zigzag ones 4% to
6%.
3 Width of wharf approach shall not be less than 8.5m for second and third class
highways; that for fourth class highways not less than 7.0m.

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 Vehicle and Human Load

6 Vehicle and Human Load

6.0.1 Vehicle load is classified into two grades which are Highway-Ⅰand Highway-Ⅱ.
Vehicle load is composed of lane load and automobile load. Lane load is composed of
uniform distributed load and concentrated load.
Lane load shall be adopted for the integral calculation of bridge structure; automobile
load shall be adopted for the calculation partial loading of bridge structure, culverts,
abutment and pressure of bulkhead wall. Action of lane load and automobile load shall
not be super positioned.

6.0.2 Grade of vehicle load for design of bridges and culverts on every class highway shall
meet the specification in Table 6.0.2.

Table 6.0.2 Grade of vehicle load

Highway First class Second class Third class Fourth class
Freeway
Classes highway highway highway highway
Grade of
Highway-Ⅰ Highway-Ⅰ Highway-Ⅱ Highway-Ⅱ Highway-Ⅱ
vehicle load

Where second class highway serves as arterial highway and there are plenty of heavy
vehicles, Highway-Ⅰ vehicle load may be adopted in design of bridges and culverts.
Where there are few heavy vehicles on fourth class highway, 0.8 times of Highway-Ⅱ
lane load action may be adopted in design of bridges and culverts, and 0.7 times of
automobile load action shall be adopted.

6.0.3 Calculation graph of lane load is shown in Table 6.0.3.

Note: calculated span is:

for structures with bearings, the horizontal distance between two adjacent bearings;

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Technical Standard of Highway Engineering (JTG B01—2003)

for structures without bearings, the horizontal distance between two centers of
intersections of superstructure and substructure.
Figure 6.0.3 Lane load

1 Characteristic value of uniformly distributed load of Highway-Ⅰlane load is

qk = 10.5kN / m ; Characteristic value of concentrated load Pk is adopted according to

the following specifications:

Where calculated span of bridges and culverts is less than or equal to 5m, Pk =180kN;

Where calculated span of bridges and culverts is greater than or equal to 50m,

Pk =360kN;

Where calculated span of bridges and culverts is greater than 5m and less than 50m, Pk

is determined by linear interpolation.

During calculation of shear action, the above mentioned characteristic value shall be
multiplied by coefficient of 1.2.

Characteristic value of uniformly distributed load qk and concentrated load Pk for

Highway-Ⅱ lane load is 0.75 times of that for Highway-Ⅰ.

2 Characteristic value of uniformly distributed load of lane load shall be exerted on the
same influence line that produces the most unfavorable action for structure;
Characteristic value of concentrated load shall be exerted only at a single peak value
point of the corresponding influence line.

6.0.4 Automobile load layout is shown in figure 6.0.4, main technical index of which is
specified in Table 6.0.4.
Same Characteristic values of automobile load are adopted for Highway-Ⅰand
Highway-Ⅱ vehicle load.

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 Vehicle and Human Load

a) Elevation figure

b）Plane figure

Figure 6.0.4 Automobile load layout (axle weight unit: kN; size unit: m)

Table 6.0.4 Main technical index of vehicle load

Item Unit Technical specification
Characteristic value of Vehicles weight KN 550
Top axle gravity characteristic value KN 30
Middle axle gravity characteristic value KN 2ｘ120
Back axle gravity characteristic value KN 2ｘ140
Distance between axles m 3+1.4+7+1.4
Distance between wheels m 1.8
front wheel grounding width and length m 0.3ｘ0.2
Middle and back wheel grounding width and
m 0.6ｘ0.2
length
Vehicle outline size (lengthｘwidth) m 15ｘ2.5

6.0.5 Vehicle load lateral distribution coefficient shall be calculated according to design lanes.

Figure 6.0.5 Lateral layout of Vehicle load (size unit: m)

6.0.6 Bridges and culverts: The design vehicle lanes shall conform to provision 6.0.6-1.
Reduction shall be considered for Multi-lane bridge vehicle load. When the design lanes
of bridges and culverts is equal to or greater than 2, Effect produced by the vehicle load

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 Technical Standard of Highway Engineering (JTG B01—2003)

shall be reduced according to multi-lane lateral reduction coefficient specified in Table

6.0.6-2, but the effect after reduction shall not be smaller than that of double lanes.

Table 6.0.6-1 Numbers of bridge design lanes

Width of bridge deck W(m) Numbers of bridge
One-way bridge Two-way bridge design lanes
W<7.0 1
7.0≤W＜10.5 6.0≤W＜14.0 2
10.5≤W＜14.0 3
14.0≤W＜17.5 14.0≤W＜21.0 4
17.5≤W＜21.0 5
21.0≤W＜24.5 21.0≤W＜28.0 6
24.5≤W＜28.0 7
28.0≤W＜31.5 28.0≤W＜35.0 8

Table 6.0.6-2 Lateral reduction coefficient

Arch of lateral Arrangement design
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
lanes
Lateral reduction coefficient 1.00 0.78 0.67 0.60 0.55 0.52 0.50

6.0.7 Longitudinal reduction shall be taken into account for lane load of long-span bridges.
Where bridge calculated span is greater than 150m, reduction shall be carried out
according to longitudinal reduction coefficient in Table 6.0.7.
Where bridge is multi-span continuous structure, entire structure shall be reduced
according to longitudinal reduction coefficient of maximum calculated span.

Table 6.0.7 Longitudinal reduction coefficient

Calculated span Longitudinal reduction coefficient
150＜LO＜400 0.97
400≤LO＜600 0.96
600≤LO＜800 0.95
800≤LO＜1000 0.94
LO≥1000 0.93

6.0.8 Where footway is set up in highway bridge, human load shall be calculated at the
meantime.

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 Vehicle and Human Load

1. Where bridge calculated span is smaller than or equal to 50m, characteristic value of
human load is 3.0KN/m2;
Where bridge calculated span is equal to or greater than 150m, characteristic value of
human load is 2.5KN/m2;
Where bridge calculated span is greater than 50m and less than 150m, characteristic
value of human load may be determined by linear interpolation.
For continuous structure with different spans, characteristic value of human load of
the maximum calculated span shall be adopted.
2. For highway bridges in suburb of towns with intensity pedestrians, characteristic
value of human load shall be 1.15 times of the above-mentioned characteristic values.
3. For pedestrian bridges, characteristic value of human load is 3.5 KN/m2.