HorseShoe Bridge
The A36 Selby Bypass consists of approximately 10 km of new road, involving the construction of approximately 3.5 km of road on embankment (2m to 9m in height), 5.5 km of road at-grade (or on low height embankment) and 700m of road in cutting up to 11m deep. The new bypass includes four roundabouts (two at grade and two on embankment), five over-bridges with 40m to 120m span lengths and an accommodation under-bridge. The Principal Contractor of the job was Skanska and the project was awarded on a turnkey (design-and-built) basis. The structural design was done by High Point Rendel (HPRRPT)
London office; HPR-RPT’s Abu Dhabi Office and Engineering Associates (EA) carried out the Category II Design Check. EA scope of work included producing independent design calculations for William Jessop Canal Bridge and Horseshoe Bridge using BS5400 standard, comparing the capacities of each element with their design effects and checking the design drawings.
Out of the two Bridge structures checked by EA, William Jessop Canal Bridge was a three-span Semi-Integral Steel Composite Bridge with an overall length of 88m (span arrangement being 23-42-23 meters), width of 16.3m and skew of about 47o. With the semi-integral construction, the Bridge had no expansion joint to give better riding quality and reduce the maintenance costs. The structure, made up of haunch steel plate girders with depth varying from 1.695m to 1.045m, was founded on piles and crosses Selby Canal and two access tracks. 5.65m wide single lane Horseshoe Bridge crosses the proposed A36 Selby Bypass trunk road with a single span length of 25m. This was a Prestressed-Beam Bridge with Integral Abutments and shallow foundations. The Integral construction has resulted in elimination of bearings and expansion joints. The Bridge was analyzed as a frame structure with earth passive pressure being generated due to temperature movements.