Bridge vibrations under road traffic during concrete hardening of widened bridge deck

Adaptations of road infrastructure must often be performed without interruption of traffic. Vibrations induced by ongoing traffic propagate to structural elements under construction and may affect the concrete hardening process and thus negatively influence quality of the final structure. This paper examines major influencing factors that contribute to large bridge vibration velocities during widening of bridge deck with ongoing traffic. The vibrations are evaluated in light of the considered limit for fresh concrete in hardening process. The analysis presents a case study of a reinforced-concrete bridge under traffic excitation. Vehicle velocity, type, mass, as well as road profile characteristic were varied in the simulation and bridge vibration amplitudes were calculated using full vehicle-structure interaction. The simulation results provide a basis for meaningful discussion on necessary traffic restrictions or other measures to avoid quality impairment in construction.