EXTRADOSED BRIDGE

The extradosed bridge can be thought of as an intermediate between the girder and
cantilever bridge forms. The name comes from the French word extradossé, which is
derived from the word extrados, which means the exterior curve of an arch.

The term ‘Extradosed’ was coined by Jacques Mathivat (1988) to appropriately

describe an innovative cabling concept he developed for the Arrêt-Darré Viaduct, in
which external tendons were placed above the deck instead of within the crosssection
as would be the case in a girder bridge.

4
Development of form, from girder and cable-stayed to extradosed (modified from Shirono et al .)

For clearer definition, extradosed bridge is a

form of cable-stayed bridge it has a short
tower and a relatively stiff girder; the
arrangement of girder, tower and stays will
have been chosen to ensure the girder
stiffness is significant compared with that of
the cables, such that the girder carries the
majority the live load.

The classic extradosed form of the

Tokunoyamahattoku Bridge in Japan.
 Rittoh Bridge, Japan (left) and Sunnibergbrucke, Switzerland (right).

Golden Ears Bridge, Vancouver, BC (left) and I-35 bridges over the Brazos River in Waco, Texas (right).

In an extradosed bridge, the deck is directly supported by resting on part of the tower, so
that in close proximity to the tower the deck can act as a continuous beam. The cables
from a lower tower intersect with the deck only further out, and at a lower angle, so that
their tension acts more to compress the bridge deck horizontally than to support it
vertically. Thus the cable stays act as prestressing cables for a concrete deck, whether
made with I-beam girders or a box girder. The deck of an extradosed bridge can be thinner
than that of a comparable span-beam bridge, but must be thicker than that of a
conventional cable-stayed bridge of comparable span.
In structural perspective, main differences between cable-stayed and extradosed bridge
types are load participation ratio, which affects design aspective of cable members. Since
cable-stayed bridge totally rely on their vertical load to cable members, extradosed bridge
usually rely their load on only 20% to 50% to cable, and remaining portion is covered by
the girder which is more stiff than the stiffening girder in a cable-stayed bridge. It is usual
that the main design constraint in a cable-stayed bridge is fatigue of cable and anchorage
system. In extradosed bridges, fatigue is not a big concern since live load usually creates
only a small amount of stress variation in the cables because of the stiffness ratio between
a cable and the girder.

Characteristics of an Extradosed Bridge

 External appearance resembles cable-stayed bridge – but structural

characteristics are comparable to those of conventional girder bridge
 Shorter tower than cable stayed
 Shallower girder than a girder bridge, but deeper than a cable stayed bridge
 Flatter cables than a cable stayed bridge, and only over a portion of the span.
 Cables sized to prestress the deck
 Low fatigue ranges for cables
 Uniform size range for cables

Design Considerations for Extradosed Bridge

 Span Lengths: For bridge with span length of 200ft-900ft.

 Side Span Ratios
a) Std. Deviation = 0.45 to 0.69
b) Use L1/L = 0.6
 Multi Span Bridges: Applicable to multi-span bridge.
 Tower Height
a) H/L ≈ 1:10
 Girder Depth/Haunch

a) S/D ≈ 1:30 at pier

b) S/D ≈ 1:50 at mid-span

 Bridge Width
 Aesthetic Opportunities