NSBA Guide to Navigating Routine Steel Bridge Design

The following is an excerpt from the foreword of the National Steel Bridge Alliance’s Navigating Routine Steel Bridge Design: AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 9th Edition

Overview of the Guide

The design of bridges requires the efforts of engineers educated and experienced in structural design, specifically the unique aspects of bridge design. However, bridge design need not be complicated or challenging, particularly for the more routine bridges which form a large part of the inventory of transportation structures in the United States. In particular, the design of “routine steel I-girder bridges,” a workhorse structure type, can be relatively simple if the engineer knows where to focus their efforts and is provided with guidance on how to streamline the more predictable, repetitive aspects of the design effort.

To this end, the National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA), a division of the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) has developed this Guide to Navigating Routine Steel Bridge Design. The goal of this Guide is to help designers navigate the comprehensive design provisions of the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications (AASHTO LRFD BDS), identifying just the provisions that are applicable to the design of routine steel I-girder bridges, explaining how to apply those provisions, recommending practices proven to lead to economical designs, and suggesting ways to streamline the design effort.

This Guide is meant to be used as an interactive reference, rather than as a textbook read from cover to cover. The general flow of design tasks is outlined, and at any point in the design process the reader can quickly jump to a detailed Discussion of any particular AASHTO LRFD BDS provision. Through this process, a bridge engineer will not only find answers to specific questions, but can also increase their familiarity with, and understanding of, the AASHTO LRFD BDS.

Download the Guide from the National Steel Bridge Alliance.

Videos: Using NSBA’s Guide for Routine Steel Bridge Design

Learn more about the Guide by watching the following videos from the June 2021 Steel Bridge Essentials webinar series.

Introduction to the NSBA Guide

• Presenter: Domenic Coletti (email), P.E., Principal Professional Associate, HDR, Inc.

Using the Guide to Streamline Design

• Presenter: Brandon Chavel (email), Ph.D., P.E., Director of Market Development, National Steel Bridge Alliance