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Construction of a Butterfly Web Bridge



Author(s)

Kenichiro Ashizuka1, Kenji Miyamoto1, Kenichi Kata2 and Akio Kasuga2

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DOI:10.17265/1934-7359/2014.11.013

1. Kyushu Branch Office, West Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd., Fukuoka 810-0001, Japan
2. Civil Engineering Design Department, Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd., Tokyo 104-0051, Japan

A new type of bridge called “butterfly web bridge” is under construction in Japan. In a butterfly web bridge, the butterfly-shaped web forms a structure that exhibits behavior similar to a double Warren truss. The 80 MPa concrete is used for the butterfly web which has a precast plate with a thickness of 150 mm. As butterfly web is a concrete material, reinforcement provided by prestressing tendons is needed on the tension side. Moreover, the 150 mm plate has no re-bars but is reinforced by steel fibers. This bridge, named Takubogawa Bridge, is a highway bridge and has 10 spans including the 87.5 m maximum span length. Takubogawa Bridge is constructed by free cantilevering method. The butterfly web enables the construction speed of cantilevering to be advanced about 50% compared with conventional cast-in-situ method and can meet the requirement of light weight and low maintenance.

Precast plate, fibre reinforced concrete, construction speed, low maintenance.