Abstract
Cable replacement is one of the most important approaches for retrofitting an existing cable-stayed bridge. The Yonghe Bridge opened to traffic in 1987 and was the largest concrete cable-stayed bridge in Asia at the time. After nearly 20 years in service, its stay-cable system was completely replaced. The present paper details the key technical points of cable replacement in this bridge, including causes of replacement, cable replacement design, construction monitoring during replacement, and cable tension tuning after replacement. Based on the measurements during construction, the variation in structural condition indexes was thoroughly investigated, such as cable forces throughout the bridge, geometry profile of bridge deck, and tower horizontal displacements. The structural changes due to cable replacement were evaluated, and then, a relatively desirable scheme of cable adjustment was correspondingly put forward. The measured results showed that, influenced by the accumulated tolerances of cable forces during construction, cable replacement may often lead to a further deviation of structural condition. In this instance, cable adjustment is an effective compensation measure to improve the overall structural condition of the bridge. The practice of cable replacement in the Yonghe Bridge has provided some valuable experience or beneficial references for the similar retrofitting cases.
Highlights
Concrete cable-stayed bridge is a relatively economical structural type among those with a main span of 200 m to 500 m [1]
Advances in Civil Engineering by cable tension tuning. It focuses on the analysis of variation in three structural indexes under the full final dead load, i.e., vertical profile of the bridge deck, tower horizontal displacements, and cable forces throughout the bridge. e Yonghe Bridge is a representative of early concrete cablestayed bridges in China and has been paid much attention by bridge engineers and scholars at home and abroad for a long time. e objective of this paper is to present the procedure and results of cable replacement in this bridge and to provide possible successful experience and future improvements for similar retrofitting cases
replacement of closure segment (RCS) eliminates the hidden danger in structure caused by local failure, it has no significant influence on the overall structural condition, which is usually characterized by cable forces, deck geometric profile, and tower horizontal displacements in a cable-stayed bridge [14]
Summary
Concrete cable-stayed bridge is a relatively economical structural type among those with a main span of 200 m to 500 m [1]. Bridge Description e Yonghe Bridge is located on Jin-Han Highway connecting Tianjin and Hangu over the Yongding New River in China (see Figure 1) It is a five-span cable-stayed bridge, with a continuous and floatable prestressed concrete (PC) main girder, double pylons, and double cable planes. E erection of the superstructure of the Yonghe Bridge began in October 1984, and the entire bridge was completed and opened to traffic in December 1987 At the time, it was the largest concrete cable-stayed bridge in Asia and the third largest span in the world. The deck pavement was refurbished to improve the driving condition. en, cable replacement was implemented and became an important part of the Retrofitting Project of the Yonghe Bridge implemented in the period from June 2006 to January 2007
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