Design, construction and maintenance of modern timber bridges – part 1: design
Efficiency in planning and construction of durable structures is achieved by using regulations based on the current state of the art. In bridge construction, a comprehensive set of rules exists for bridges made of reinforced and prestressed concrete or of steel and steel‐concrete‐composites. For timber bridges, such rules are lacking. There are no regulations for the design, construction, maintenance and inspection of timber bridges. The research project “Protected Timber Bridges (ProTimB)” has been initiated at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt to reduce the considerable competitive disadvantages for timber bridges. The project aimed at the development of a unified set of rules for the design, the construction and the maintenance of protected timber bridges according to the existing regulations for other materials.
Two articles are presenting the most important results of this project. The present article gives an overview over the content of the whole project und shows the new set of design rules for protected timber bridges. It focuses on the new sample drawings and the structural protection rules. The new design guidelines support the planning engineers to develop durable and sustainable timber bridges. They contribute to the renaissance of bridge construction using the great material timber.