SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING
901 INTRODUCTION
This section contains requirements and
guidelines to be followed when rating the
followings:
New Structure
Existing Structure
Rehabilitated Structure
The bridge rating results and reports shall be
submitted to the responsible ODOT District
office.
AASHTO BARS-PC (BARS-PC) computer
program shall be used to rate the bridges.
The BARS-PC programs input and output are
based on English units. The metric dimensions
need to be converted in English units for input
to the program.
BARS-PC program installation disks and User
Manuals are available from the Office of
Structural Engineering, Structural Rating
Engineer, for use on ODOT projects. For system
requirements and capabilities of the BARS-PC
program, refer to Section 903 and the BARS-PC
User Manuals.
902 REQU I R E MENTS FOR
BRIDGE RATING
902.1 GENERAL
For new, existing and rehabilitated structures,
the designer will analyze and rate the entire
super-structure including main spans and
approach or ramp spans, if any, designed to
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carry vehicular traffic.
For new structures, the analysis shall be based
on the design plans, assuring that all the changes
in the final approved plans have been
incorporated in the rating analysis and report.
The existing structures shall be analyzed based
on the original design plans and actual field
conditions .
Structures with major rehabilitation should be
analyzed using the original design plans, actual
field conditions, and rehabilitation plans,
incorporating all the major changes during
original construction and in the final approved
plans, if any.
902.2 SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR
RATING
All main structural members affected by live
load shall be analyzed.
All members shall have actual net section and
current conditions incorporated into the
members analysis. Any known section losses,
defects or damage to the existing structural
members shall be considered in the rating
analysis, accordingly.
The members shall be analyzed as to the
intended method of construction. Structural
members constructed as non-composite should
be analyzed as non-composite and so on.
All dead loads are to be calculated as per actual
field conditions and shall be used in the
 SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING SEPTEMBER 1998

structural analysis. Future dead loads shall not Live Load Figure Analysis*
be applied, unless directed otherwise in the Designation
scope of services.
1 MS18 SEE I&O
AASHTO live load distribution factors shall be (HS20-44) AASHTO
used for analysis. & Alternate
Military
All analysis shall be performed using Load Loading
Factor (Strength) Design Method. The load
factors as defined in AASHTO shall be applied. 2 2S1 Fig. 901 O
Fig. 902
Working Stress Method can be used for those 3 3S1 Fig. 901 O
members that can not be analyzed by Load Fig. 902
Factor (Strength) method in BARS-PC.
4 4S1 Fig. 901 O
The analysis shall be performed for AASHTO Fig. 902
MS18 (HS20-44) Loading, an Alternate Military
5 5C1 Fig. 901 O
Loading and the four Ohio Legal Loads (2S1,
Fig. 902
3S1, 4S1, and 5C1) for both Inventory and
Operating conditions according to Table 9-1.
* I = Inventory Rating Analysis
The analysis for special or superload vehicle, if O = Operating Rating Analysis
required in the scope, shall be performed for
Operating condition only.

Refer to ODOT Procedure No.: 518-001 (P),
Rating of Bridges and Posting for Reduced
Load Limits, for rating procedures.
All vehicles used for analysis shall have
transverse spacing between centerline of wheels,
or wheel groups, of 1830 mm (6 ft.).
902.3 REQUIREMENTS FOR BRIDGE
RATING - FATIGUE ANALYSIS
If a fatigue analysis is required in the scope, the
analysis shall be performed in accordance with
AASHTO (see Section 905, References).
The fatigue analysis calculations and resulting
ratings shall be presented in the final report.

902.4 ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURES

WITH SIDEWALKS

Table 9 - 1 Sidewalks shall have AASHTO live loads

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 SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING
applied, but reduced by 50% to reflect actual
service conditions.
902.5 BRIDGE ANALYSIS FOR LEGAL
AND SPECIAL LOADS -
MULTILANE LOADING
For Operating rating analysis of floor beams,
trusses, non-redundant girders or other non-
redundant main structural members, position
identical Legal Vehicles in one or more of the
through traffic lanes on the bridge, spaced and
shifted laterally on the deck so as to produce
maximum stress in the member under
consideration.
AASHTO reduction factors for multiple lane
loadings shall be applied where appropriate.
Traffic lanes to be used for rating purposes,
shall be the actual marked travel lanes.
When a bridge is to be analyzed for a Special or
Superload vehicle in a multilane loading
condition, the lanes adjacent to the Special or
Superload vehicle lane shall be loaded with MS
18 (HS20-44) Loading to simulate normal
traffic on the structure, concurrent with the
Special or Superload vehicle.
The Special or Superload vehicle shall laterally
be placed in such a lane, concurrent with MS 18
(HS20-44) Loading, to produce maximum
stresses in the member under consideration.
When a structure is required to be analyzed for
Special or Superload vehicle, a second analysis
shall be performed for a single lane loading of
Special or Superload vehicle condition. The
Special or Superload vehicle shall be placed
laterally on the bridge to produce maximum
stresses in the critical member under
consideration.
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SEPTEMBER 1998
902.6 BRIDGE ANALYSIS - MATERIAL
STRESSES
Allowable stresses for Working Stress and the
ultimate or yield Strengths of materials for Load
Factor ratings shall be as specified on the
original design plans, unless it is required to
conduct specific tests to determine the material
strengths or the design plans omit this
information.
The rater should review the original design
plans as the first source of information for
material strengths and stresses. If material
strengths are not explicitly stated on the design
plans, ODOT Construction and Material
Specifications (CMS) applicable at the time of
bridge construction shall be reviewed. This may
require investigations into old ASTM or
AASHTO Material Specifications active at the
time of construction.
Table 9-4 provides general information about
ODOT Allowable Stresses in bending and shear
and material strengths based on the year of
construction. These material properties are used
as default values in the BARS-PC. Any material
stresses and specifications specified on design
plans supersede the values in Table 9-4.
The rater is cautioned to pay extra attention to
design plans when determining material
strengths for structures built during transition
years of Table 9-4 (e.g., for SS years 1964-68,
or 1988-93, etc.) as materials may have been
substituted.
903 AASHTO BARS-PC
PROGRAM - CAPABILITIES
& REQUIREMENTS
 SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING SEPTEMBER 1998

BARS-PC is the PC version of AASHTO BARS Table 9-3

(Bridge Analysis and Rating System) program
that can analyze and rate bridges based on the
Member Method* Type of Spans
current AASHTO Specifications.
Type Analysis
The BARS-PC program, detailed User Manuals, Truss - WS Axial 1-5
and installation instructions are available from Simple or
ODOT, the Office of Structural Engineering, Cantilever
Structural Rating Engineer, exclusively for use
on ODOT projects. Limited technical support to Transverse WS Bending Single
install and execute the program is also available Floor Beam or
through that office. Simple LF
Span
Transverse WS Bending Single
903.1 TYPES OF MATERIALS & Floor Beam main
METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION cantilever Span
on ends
The type of materials, methods of construction
and type of sections that can be handled by Stringer, WS Bending 1 - 18
BARS-PC are given in Table 9-2. Beam or or & Shear
Girder LF
Table 9-2
Reinforced WS Bending 1-6
Concrete or
Material Method of Sections Frame LF
Construction
Steel Composite variety of * WS: Working Stress
Non-composite sections LF: Load Factor

Reinforced Composite Rectangle

Concrete Non-composite T-section
Prestressed Composite Box beam
Concrete Non-composite I-section
Timber Non-composite Rectangle

903.3 BARS-PC SYSTEM

903.2 TYPES OF STRUCTURES REQUIREMENTS

AASHTO BARS-PC can analyze and rate the The following are computer equipment
following type of bridge members (Table 9-3): requirements to run BARS-PC:

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 SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING SEPTEMBER 1998

Hardware Requirements Three (3) copies of the written Bridge Rating

Report shall be submitted to the responsible
Minimum configuration ODOT District office.

386 - 12 MHz with math co-processor The responsible District Office will review,
6 MB RAM approve and send a copy of the final Bridge
60MB disk drive (uncompressed) Rating Report to the Office of Structural
3.5" high density diskette drive Engineering, attention: Structure Rating
EGA display adapter Engineer.
mouse
The report must list final Inventory and
Optimum configuration Operating Ratings of each critical bridge
member, overall ratings of each structure unit
Pentium or compatible CPU (mainline, ramps, etc.), and the final ratings of
32 MB RAM the entire structure. The ratings of each member
150 MB free space on hard drive and the structure shall be presented for each live
(uncompressed) load vehicle according to Table 9-1.
3.5" disk drive
VGA or SVGA display adapter The Inventory Ratings shall be expressed in
mouse terms of the AASHTO-HS loading (English
Units), rounded off to nearest single decimal
Software Requirements (any of the following) point, not to be listed more than HS20.0,
(HS18.5, HS10.6, etc.).
Windows 3.11 (MS-DOS 5.0 or higher)
Windows 95 The Operating Ratings for MS18 (HS20-44)
Windows 98 Loading shall be expressed in terms of HS
Windows NT 3.51 and higher (English Units) loading, rounded off to nearest
single decimal point, not to be listed more than
HS25.0 (HS20.8, HS 23.2, etc.).

The Operating Ratings for Ohio Legal Loads

(2S1, 3S1, 4S1, and 5C1) shall be expressed as
a percent of the Ohio Legal Load, rounded off to
the nearest 5 percent, not to be listed more than
150% (85%, 140%, etc.).

904 FINAL REPORT The original design method and loading, used
SUBMITTAL for the design of the bridge and/or specific
members (if different for different members or
904.1 GENERAL units) shall be explicitly stated in the report.

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 SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING SEPTEMBER 1998

The assumptions made to model a structural

member or unit for computer analysis shall be
clearly stated in the report.
For existing bridges, the report should include in
the narrative, how the material properties and
geometry was determined and any specific
details about the current conditions. All hand
calculations should be part of the report.
AASHTO, Guide Specifications for
Strength Evaluation of Existing Steel
and Concrete Bridges, 1989.
AASHTO, Guide Specifications for
Fatigue Evaluation of Existing Steel
Bridges, 1990 and all subsequent
Interims.

AASHTO, Guide Specifications for

904.2 COMPUTER INPUT AND OUTPUT Fracture Critical Non-Redundant Steel
FILES Bridge Members, 1978 and all
subsequent Interims.
The hard copies of computer input and output
files of bridges analyzed using a computer AASHTO, Manual for Condition
software shall be included with the report. Evaluation of Bridges, 1994 and all
subsequent Interims.
If the structure is rated using AASHTO BARS-
PC program, the electronic copy of the bridge
rating input file on PC-compatible computer
disks shall accompany the report.

The District office will send the final copy of

the electronic data input file to the Structure
Rating Engineer in the Office of Structural
Engineering, for transfer to the Bridge Master
File.

The Bridge Master File is maintained on the

ODOT Central Office Mainframe computers
and contains the input data files of all the
bridges rated on BARS program. This Master
File is used to quickly access the input data files
for the future Special and Superload analyses.

If the structure is rated using a computer

software other than BARS-PC, consult with the
Office of Structural Engineering, Structural
Rating Engineer, for specific instructions on
submittal of electronic copies of data input file.

905 REFERENCES
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SECTION 900 STRUCTURE RATING SEPTEMBER 1998

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