AASHTO HL-93 Loading Highway Design

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This is a hypothetical Live Load Model proposed by AASHTO for analysis of bridges. Reason for
proposing this live load model is to prescribe a set of loads such that it produces extreme load effect
approximately same as that produced by the exclusion vehicles.
Exclusion vehicles were the vehicles above the legal limit but due to grand fathering provision in the
state they were allowed to operate routinely.
It has 3 basic Live Loads for bridges called HL-93 Loading (where H stands for highway and L stands
for Loading, developed in 1993).
Design Truck
Design Tandem
Design Lane
1. Design Truck:
It is commonly called as HS-20 44 (where H stands for highway, S for semi-trailer, 20 TON weight of
the tractor (1st two axles) and was proposed in 1944)

Figure 3-1 Characteristics of Design Truck, HL-93



2. Design Tandem:
It consists of two axles weighing 25 kips (110 KN) each spaced at 4 ft (1.2 m)

3. Design Lane:
It consists of uniformly distributed load of .64 kip/ft (9.3 N/mm) and assumed to occupy 10 ft (3 m)
transversely.


HL-93 is the maximum of the two:
Design Tandem + Design Lane
Design Truck + Design Lane














a. Tuck and Uniform Load


b. Tandem and Uniform Load


c. Alternative Load for Negative Moment (reduced to 90%) Figure 3-2
Design Live Load in AASHTO LRFD,HL-93







HL93 Truck Loads vs. HS20 Truck Loads
Jul 28, 2010 Archive - 2009-2010, Precast Inc. Magazine, Precast Magazines3 Comments
How will the new AASHTO loading specifications affect you?

By Gary Munkelt

Precasters who manufacture underground products such as box culverts and pump chambers have
for many years designed their products for AASHTO HS20-44 or Alternate Military Loading
(Interstate Loading), whichever produces the worst condition on the structure. They are beginning to
see specifications for projects that require an AASHTO HL93 truck load. How will the new loading
specifications affect future designs for underground structures that are currently based on the
requirements of the old loading specifications?

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) was created in
1914 to provide guidelines for the design of structures within highway boundaries. State
Department officials volunteer their services to generate necessary specifications. The document
titled Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges has for many years defined the load and design
requirements for underground precast (or cast-in-place) concrete structures. The recommendations
from this document are included in ASTM specifications written for underground precast concrete
structures such as C478, C890, C913, C1443 and C1557.

The most recent edition of the Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges is the 17th edition,
published in 2002. The design methods in those 17 editions included the Allowable Stress Design
(ASD) and Ultimate Load Factor Design (LFD).

The truck loads first used had the designation of H20 (see Figure 1), which covered a two-axle truck
weighing 20 tons. The front axle carried 8,000 pounds and the rear axle, 14 feet away, carried 32,000
pounds. The 1944 edition included the HS20 truck load and started a policy of affixing the year to
loadings making HS20-44 the official designation. The additional S made an allowance for heavier
tractor-trailers that were available at the time. Figure 2 describes the load and load spacing for
HS20-44.

As the Interstate Highway System evolved in the 1950s, one of its goals was to transport military
vehicles. The Alternative Military Load (also referred to as Interstate Load) was created to cover
axle loads from heavy military equipment. This new load, shown in Figure 3, consists of two axles 4
feet apart with each axle carrying a load of 24,000 pounds.



A system of lane loads was created to provide a simpler method of calculating moments and shears
rather than using concentrated wheel loads shown in Figures 1 and 2. The lane loads are used in
designs of bridge decks that consist of several lanes on multiple spans. They are not used for design
of structures below grade, because the concrete boxes normally consist of single spans that are
relatively short when compared with bridge spans.

There was some concern during the end of the 20th century that the HS20 truck load did not
adequately reflect actual conditions. As a result, some engineers have required an HS25 truck load
for underground precast structures. This rating has been interpreted as being 25 percent higher than
the HS20 truck load. Thus, the HS20 axle load of 32,000 pounds becomes an HS25 axle load of
40,000 pounds. The increased load can in some cases create the need for additional reinforcing steel
and sometimes a thicker top slab on underground structures installed in areas exposed to heavy
truck loads.



In recent years, AASHTO has created the document titled LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. The
current 3rd edition was published in 2004 with a 2005 interim. The purpose of the LRFD (Load and
Resistance Factor Design) document is not to make all existing bridges obsolete, but to provide a
design of new bridges that includes benefits from statistics, research and new materials. Load and
resistance coefficients are slightly different, but the results are similar. The Federal Highway
Administration has endorsed the new LRFD method and encouraged its adoption for new bridge
designs after 2007. As a result, precast concrete manufacturers are seeing contract documents that
require AASHTO HL93 truck loads.

The HL93 designation consists of a design truck plus design lane load or design tandem plus
design lane load, whichever produces the worst case. A design truck is identical to the HS20 load
configurations shown in Figure 2. The design tandem is the same as shown in Figure 3 except that
the axle load is 25,000 pounds rather than 24,000 pounds. The term lane load is new and applies
to design of above grade bridge decks. It does not apply to below ground structures. This is
confirmed in ASTM C1577, which states that the tables were created using the AASHTO HL 93 live
load without the lane load as permitted by AASHTO.



Many precast manufacturers pose the question, How does the new HL93 load affect design of
structures that were designed with wheel loads specified in the old document Standard
Specifications for Highway Bridges? The term wheel load is used because spans on most
underground structures are so small that only one wheel can be on top of the structure at any given
time. A wheel load is one-half of the axle load.

A comparison of old versus new indicates that the difference is very small. The HL93 design truck
wheel load is the same as the HS20 wheel load. The HL93 design tandem wheel load is 12,500
pounds compared with the Alternate Military Load of 12,000 pounds. The extra 500-pound wheel
load is not a large increase and will only affect those designs that did not have excess capacity.

Designs that were based on HS25 loads can in some cases be capable of carrying the new design
truck load. A 20,000-pound wheel load for HS25 is larger than the 16,000-pound design truck load
in HL93.

Wheel loads affect the top slab design more than wall and bottom slab. This is especially true where
the slab is less than 2 feet below grade. The effect of the wheel load on the slab decreases as depth
of cover increases. Wall design in the majority of cases will not be affected by the small increase in
loads required by the LRFD Bridge Design Specification. The same is true of the bottom slab design.

It can be concluded that the new loads may affect existing designs, but the difference between old
and new does not mean that all designs need to be updated. The small increases will not affect
designs that have excess capacity. Those designs that minimized reinforcing steel and slab thickness
to create a structure that was just good enough may need to be reviewed. These conclusions are
based on a comparison of wheel loads and do not include the many other factors used in design.
Items such as impact, depth of cover, load and resistance coefficients all play a part in the final
design. A true comparison of designs must be made based on criteria used in the precasters
previous calculations.

A comparison of two ASTM specifications demonstrates that old designs are not inferior to new
designs using LRFD. ASTM C1433 was written for box culverts using the older load factor design
(LFD), while ASTM C1577 was written for box culverts using the newer LRFD design. Some of the
steel areas required in the newer specifications are less than steel areas required in the older
specification. This comparison confirms that the new HL93 loading is not meant to cause redesign of
underground precast structures.