Effects of traffic variation on fatigue behavior of the Holston River Bridge

In January 1992, the Holston River Bridge experienced a fatigue failure in the eastbound fascia girder in the second span. After repairing the girder and retrofitting similar details associated with the failure location a research project was initiated by the Tennessee Department of Transportation in conjunction with the University of Tennessee. The Holston River Bridge research project provided the students and faculty at the University of Tennessee an opportunity to participate in a full scale fatigue study of an in service steel bridge. In order to complete the required scope of the project data were taken on 127 strain gages at selected fatigue prone locations on the bridge structure. The purpose of this thesis is to summarize all of the data taken on the Holston River Bridge project. Also, it is the intent of this thesis to investigate the effects of traffic pattern on the fatigue characteristics at several fatigue prone locations. This was accomplished due to the fact that traffic varied from normal during testing. There has been little or no research done on the effects of traffic pattern with regard to fatigue resistance. Hopefully, the results of this thesis can provide those interested in this subject a reference with a wealth of data to draw from as well as recommendations and conclusions in regard to the Holston River Bridge.