CEE 522: Bridge Design 2023/2024 SESSION BRIDGE LOADINGS 1

BRIDGE LOADING

The anticipated loadings on a bridge can emanate from four main sources,
namely, materials (permanent loads), traffic (live load), the environmental,
and construction methods. This can be structured as shown schematically in
Figure 1. In reality, not all the loads shown in Figure 1 can be considered to act
simultaneously. They are combined under different load cases with different
load factors.

Figure 1: Schematic representation of loads on a typical bridge.

i. The dead load is nothing but the self-weight of the bridge elements
such as the deck slab, wearing coat, railings, parapets, stiffeners, and
other utilities. It is the first design load to be calculated in the design
of bridges.

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CEE 522: Bridge Design 2023/2024 SESSION BRIDGE LOADINGS 2

ii. The live loads on the bridge are moving loads on its entire length. The
moving loads are vehicles. However, it is difficult to select one vehicle
or a group of vehicles for the safe design of a bridge and thus many
countries have developed standard vehicles for the design of
bridges.

iii. The IMPACT load is the load due to the effect of the moving vehicle
in relation to braking or impact due to skidding and entering
potholes. Impact factors (IF) are used to account for impact loads on
bridges. IF is given in all bridge design codes and depends on many
factors such as the weight of the vehicle, length of the vehicle.

iv. Wind loads

BRITISH STANDARD LOADINGS

These are vertical loads due directly to the mass of traffic and are considered
as static loads. Traffic comprises a random mix of cars, vans, trucks, and heavy
goods vehicles. Both the density of vehicles and intensity of loading is
constantly varying. For simplicity, standard vehicular loading consists of type
HA and HB loading. The Standard normal highway loading is called HA loading
and the standard abnormal highway loading, the HB loading.

Normal traffic is represented by a theoretical HA loading model consisting of a

uniformly distributed load (HA-UDL) combined with a knife-edge load (HA-KEL).
The knife-edge load is an attempt to model the effect of a single localized
heavy axle and is placed on the span where its effect is maximized for bending
and shear.

The HA loading is the normal design loading for the United Kingdom and covers
upto 44ton. HA, loads are represented by a uniformly distributed load with a
knife-edge load. HA, loads have covered the following situation:

i. More than one vehicle occupying the width of a lane.

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CEE 522: Bridge Design 2023/2024 SESSION BRIDGE LOADINGS 3

ii. Overloading in normal vehicles

iii. Impact load induced when car wheel bounce when traveling across
potholes.

Figure 2: HA loading pattern.

Type HB loading caters for the safe passage of an abnormally heavy vehicle
of up to 180 tonnes gross laden weight with a certain configuration of wheels
and axle as shown in Figure 3. Type HB loading is usually expressed in Units per
axle. The full type HB loading (180 tonnes) is commonly expressed as 45 units (1
unit - 10KN) or part of it, 37.5 units (150 tonnes) or 30 units (120 tonnes)

Figure 3: HB Loading

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CEE 522: Bridge Design 2023/2024 SESSION BRIDGE LOADINGS 4

In applications, the structure and its elements shall be designed to resists the
more severe effects of the following load combinations:
1) Type HA loading alone
2) HB-30 loading combined with type HA loading
3) HB -45 combined with type HA loading on other carriageways
In order to apply HA and HB loading types, the carriageway width and the
width and number of notional lanes must be defined.

Carriageway width: The carriageway width is the width between parapets or

the width between parapet and raised kerb where there is centre median. This
is measured perpendicular to the line of the parapets. Figure 4 depicts the
definition of carriageway width. Notional lanes: the notional parts of the
carriageway are used for purposes of applying the specified live loads. The
notional lane width shall be measured in a direction parallel to the
carriageway width (see figure 5). Table 1 shows the allocated number of
notional lanes depending on the carriageway width.

Figure 4: carriageway

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CEE 522: Bridge Design 2023/2024 SESSION BRIDGE LOADINGS 5

Figure 5: Notional Lanes definitions.

Table 1: Number of notional Lanes

Carriageway width N, No of notional lanes
5.00 up to and including 7.5 2
Above 7.5m up to and including 10.95 3
Above 10.95m up to and including 14.60 4
Above 14.60 up to and including 18.25 5
Above 18.25 up to and including 21.90 6

The width of the notional lane 𝑏𝐿 can be derived using equation 1.

𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ
𝑏𝐿 =
𝑁

Where N is the number of notional lanes as read from table 1.

For carriageway widths of less than 5.0m, the carriageway shall be taken to
have one notional lane with a width of 2.50m. The load on the remaining
carriageway width shall be taken as 5kN/m2.

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CEE 522: Bridge Design 2023/2024 SESSION BRIDGE LOADINGS 6

Nominal HA uniformly distributed load (HA-UDL):

For loaded lengths, L≤ 50𝑚,

1 0.67
HA-UDL== 336 ( ) kN/m per notional lane width
𝐿

For loaded lengths 50𝑚 ≤ 𝐿 ≤ 160𝑚 but less than 1600m,

1 0.1
HA-UDL== 36 ( ) kN/m per notional lane width
𝐿

For loaded lengths 50𝑚 ≤ 𝐿 ≤ 160𝑚 but less than 1600m,

For loaded lengths above 1600m, the UDL shall be agreed with the relevant
authority. The HA-UDL shall be uniformly distributed over the full width of the
notional lane.

The nominal HA-KEL per notional lane shall be taken as 120 kN. It shall be
uniformly distributed over the full width of the notional lane. The design HA
loading shall be derived from different load combinations using load factors.
Figure 2 shows the representation of HA-UDL and KEL on a notional lane.

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