How to Determine the Depth of Foundation for Bridges ?

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This article will guide you about how to determine the depth of foundation for bridges
with the help of an example.

The depth of foundations for substructures shall be determined from the

consideration of the safe bearing pressures of the soil after taking into account the
effect of scour as outlined in the proceeding paras. For bridges in in -erodible streams,
the foundations shall be securely anchored into the bed materials by taking the
foundation in it about one metre or so. The anchoring is usually done by m ean of
anchor bars.

The foundations for bridges to be built across alluvium streams shall be taken down
below the maximum scour level at least one -third of the maximum scour depth from
the H.F.L. and not less than 2.0 metres for piers and abutments with ar ches and 1.2
metres for piers and abutments supporting other types of superstructure.

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In all cases, the foundations shall be taken down to such depths that there may not be
any doubt about their stability and proper grip of the foundation i s ensured. The
maximum scour near pier foundation is 2.00 dm from H.F.L. Therefore, the grip length
for deep foundations shall be 2/3 dm and depth of foundation from H.F.L. shall be
2 2/ 3 dm = 8/3 dm.

Example:

Calculate the linear waterway and mean scour depth if the design discharge is 1000
cubic metres per second and the value of silt factor is 0.8. If the linear waterway is
restricted to 100 metres with two intermediate pier foundations having average 2.75
metres obstruction to flow for each pier , what will be the mean scour depth? Also
determine the minimum depth of foundation in each case.
Solution:

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Linear Waterway, W = C√Q = 4.80√1000 = 151.80 m

It may be interesting to compare the various values under regime waterway and with
restricted waterway as shown below: