New Eurocode-Based Standards in Italy: A Comparative Bridge Design Analysis

Abstract

This article reports the main results of the preliminary studies developed by the authors’ company for the implementation of the new Italian Technical Regulations issued in 2008. In accordance with the European time scale, the new Standards are completely in line with Eurocodes and officially represent a completely interchangeable document for the designers. Although some concepts deriving from Eurocodes were already present in the former Standards, the innovative design approach entailed a complete change of the current practice. This is the case of steel and steel–concrete composite structures, for which the recent specifications ask for a performance-based approach instead of the former ones of pure prescriptive rules. In order to properly understand the introduced innovations and to gain an adequate insight into the consequences in designing activities, the consulting firm, the main Italian Highway Concessionaire, developed a study oriented to compare the old and new approaches in the field of bridge design and to quantify the changes in terms of costs and benefits with respect to specific case studies. After a brief description of the main innovations introduced by the recent Italian Eurocode-base d Standards, this article presents a detailed comparative analysis performed on an integral bridge having a composite steel–concrete deck. The results highlight the benefits obtained by the new approach which assures a better exploitation of cross-section resources gained by the bridge design which is economical at a global level.

Keywords::

• eurocodes
• performance-based design
• steel–concrete composite bridges
• structural analysis
• bridge design