Abstract
Currently the importance of bridge inspection and maintenance is widely recognized. It seems reasonable to mention that a gantry is essential for the inspection and maintenance of a long span bridge. Therefore, most long span bridges are equipped with a gantry as a permanent access tool. Honshu Shikoku Bridges compose three highways and one railway between Honshu and Shikoku islands in Japan. Three routes consist of 17 long span bridges with a main span of more than 200 m. Since the bridges had been constructed with accumulating knowledge for construction and maintenance from 1975 to 1999, a gantry had also been improved for gaining better access. Despite the improvement, there were still a certain number of inaccessible elements and components, so further improvement is being made to increase access capability due to growing requirements of arms-length inspection and maintenance. There are 152 gantries in total, consisting of four types of gantries: a suspended gantry, an internal gantry, a tower gantry, and a cable gantry. This article presents the gantries installed in the Honshu-Shikoku Bridges, containing improvement histories for each type of gantry in the construction and several efforts to improve access capability in the maintenance.
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