Proposal to Change the Design Load in the Eurocode 1 Based on Loads from Vehicles with a Mass of 60 Tonnes

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Bridges are designed on the basis of the design load specified in the load standard. Since April 1st 2010, the basic standard in Europe for the determination of the design load for road bridges is the European Standard – Eurocode 1 (2003). The work of Calgaro et al. (2010) specifies in detail standard loads. Work on the Standard started in 1987, but road traffic research in several European countries had already been conducted since 1977. It should be noted that almost 40 years have passed since the research was completed. Over the period road traffic had changed substantially (OECD (2011)). A concept is currently being discussed in Europe which provides for putting vehicles with a mass of up to 60 tonnes into circulation on the trans-European road network. In order to make the movement of vehicles with a mass of up to 60 tonnes over such structures possible, the design load should be increased. This article proposes the replacement of the design load in the basic model – Load Model 1 under the Eurocode 1 (2003) on the basis of a comparison of that model with load from 600kN special vehicles. The load from such vehicles is included in Load Model 3 according to the Standard.