Serviceability Limits and Economical Steel Bridge Design

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) LRFD 2002 Bridge Design Specifications contain serviceability deflection criteria perceived to control excess bridge vibrations and structural deterioration. Results of past research efforts indicate that the current AASHTO serviceability deflection criteria is inadequate in controlling excess bridge vibration and structural deterioration. These past studies also state that bridge vibration is better controlled by a limit based on a dynamic property of the bridge, such as natural frequency (Barth, Bergman, Roeder, 2002).