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Bronson Bass
Dr. Bagley
12/3/13
Reflection Paper #4
Truss Bridges
Truss bridges are among one of the most common bridges around, due to the fact that
they are structurally supportive and relatively cheap to construct. With many ways and different
materials to build these bridges contractors often wonder what material will last, and stay safe
with the least amount of maintenance. Overlooking issues such as restoring historic truss bridges,
building a new bridge using suspension structures, and the long-term performance of a glass
fiber-reinforced polymer truss bridge is what this essay is going to look over and how these
apply to our in class bridges.
The Keysville Road Bridge needed to be restored which is a single spanned Steal Bridge
in Maryland (Fu 2000). Being known on the National Resister of Historical Places, the bridge
was funded to be restored. Having tremendous amounts of damage to the truss members from the
flooding that occurred in years past the bridge was in desperate shape. The group presenting the
bridge put together a list to provide quality materials as well as the way in which they would
repair the bridge. They looked over the original documents of the bridge before the flood had
ruined the previous work, but they came to the conclusion that the bridge needed to be raised.
After a series of test, the group submits the documentation to approve funding, and they
conclude this memo (Fu 2000).
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Using a newer process design called composite truss bridge is using suspension structures
,a step that Japan is taking on, with such a high amount of bridges needed to be built. With a
smaller budget this is a way in which the surrounding environment can remain at ease as this will
not affect the surrounding area (Kasuga 2011). Within ten years of this article being published
there has been foot bridges to highway bridges created in mountain filled areas as described in
this article. The thing that makes these bridges so easy is that it is constructed in cables that plaid
out allowing for the surround area to remain untouched by a destructive source. With the original
bridge swaying at every step it was illogical for cars to be put on such bridges, so this team
looked into how a car could get across this bridge. Anchoring the bridge cables into the ground
makes for some heavy thinking with deck type stress the horizontal force is greater with the
weight of the supports. (Kasuga 2011)
With stress ribbons this bridge virtually cancels out the fact of the dead weight, sending
the weight through the cords forming the composite truss structure. A different view could be
with the cables strung for the original building processes can be removed, taking away from the
safety, but also adding to the cost efficiency. With multiple test and models built this bridge is
sure to be safe. The manual goes through how to create a foot bridge, and a highway bridge, each
something completely different making this a huge accomplishment for the team and people
responsible for the creation of the bridge. (Kasuga 2011)
Fiber-reinforced polymers are continuing to be increasing used for engineering structures
with their great material properties (Keller 2007). The main uses of this material are for
temporally used foot bridges and bridge decks. The benefits of this material is that it is very light
in its weight, super strength, forums to any surface, and it resists corrosion. This bridge type
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has three main uses: for low water clearances, for yearly removal or installation, and last for
pultruded shapes. This can be installed or removed with the use of a helicopter. This bridge is
made for pedestrian use and for a snow load, but can be used for the owners desires. This bridge
was created by twenty five architecture students and they tested the bridge by placing palates of
bricks onto the dock. This is a cheap and effective way to have a winter bridge that can be
removed or installed very quickly, which is structurally support and fairly cheap. (Keller 2007)
These three very different types of truss bridges are great examples why the bridge
project is a great thing, there are so many options. Each innovated design is creative and solves a
purpose and sticks to a budget. There are some that even worry more about the surrounding
environment more than the actual building of the bridge, and that is something I have not thought
about. These projects are inspiring my creative mind with the way bridges work. Just being
around town you can see examples of these bridges and I find that incredibly inspiring.








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Works Cited:
Fu, Chung C.Harwood, Ken. "Practice of Restoring Damaged Historical Truss Bridge." Practice
Periodical On Structural Design & Construction 5.3 (2000): 122. Military & Government
Collection. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
<http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/p dfviewer?sid=bc67a132-
703e-4ff7-9937-a69e574d73ff%40sessionmgr4004&vid=2&hid=4214>
Kasuga, Akio. "Development of a New Bridge Construction Method Using Suspension
Structures." WILEY-VCH Verlag, (2011). Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/suco.201000002>.
Keller, Thomas, Bai Yu, and Till Valle. "Long-Term Performance Of A Glass Fiber-
Reinforced Polymer Truss Bridge." Journal Of Composites For Construction 11.1 (2007):
99-108. Business Source Premier. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
< http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/ehost/detail?sid=301d6aaa-a6bc-4568-6f8-
a85e8e0e08d8%40sessionmgr4001&vid=1&hid=4214&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl
2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=23761556>