Design of Highway Structures using Eurocodes Seminar

On 13 November 2006 a seminar on the Design of Highway Structures using Eurocodes was held at IStructE. BSI has already published many structural Eurocodes as BSEN standards and the remaining Eurocodes are expected to be published before the end of 2006. National Annexes accompanying the Eurocodes are at various stages of development and a few of them are also published. The seminar, chaired by Ginny Clarke, Board Director at the Highways Agency, described how highway structures can be designed using these Eurocodes. The meeting provided a general background and the current status of Eurocodes, technical issues relating to the basis of design, loading and foundation, and design applications to steel and composite steel / concrete bridges.

Presentations were made by:

• Sibdas Chakrabarti, Highways Agency - on Implementation of Eurocodes for bridge design (A brief introduction describing the work carried on the Eurocodes and the DMRB)
• Steve Denton, Parsons Brinkerhoff - The presentation covered design, loading and foundation, i.e. the application of Eurocodes EN1990, EN1991, EN1992 and EN1997
• Chris Hendy, Atkins – The presentation covered the use of EN1993 and EN1994 for bridge design and the technical approval issues.
• Keith Wilson, Faber Maunsell - Independent Consultant’s views on Eurocode Design (Use of Concrete Eurocode EN1992-2 on the Copenhagen Metro)
• Barry Skinner, Bestech Systems Limited – The Software Providers’ perspective (covering the development of software for bridges)