Guidelines for the design of footbridges

The intention of fib Bulletin 32 is to present guidelines for the design of footbridges as well as bridges accommodating cyclists and bridleways (equestrian paths). The need for these guidelines comes from the fact that structural engineers designing footbridges currently have to spend considerable time and energy collecting information from numerous documents, codes and recommendations to make design decisions. There seems to be no international document dedicated solely to the design of footbridges.

These guidelines attempt to provide a concentrated source of information regarding all design issues specific to footbridges. It is meant to be a 'liberal' document in the sense that it promotes new, innovative and bold yet prudent designs by sharing the experience of the authors, summarizing specifications given in codes, and presenting a collection of examples of well-designed structures or structural details from around the world. It is not intended to be an international code that specifies limits and admissible values, thus encouraging timid, conservative designs that are repetitions of approved and tested designs. Indeed, it may be the very fact that no international code exists specifically for footbridges that encourages the wide variety of footbridge designs found today.

It should be noted that numerous guidelines, codes and books have been published on bridge design in general. Information given in those publications that is also applicable to footbridges is not repeated in Bulletin 32.

The chapters of these guidelines all follow the same pattern:

• an introduction to the subject, general guidelines as well as do's and don'ts;
• a summary of information found in existing international codes, recommendations, experience of the authors, and built examples with comparison and comments on this information;
• examples.

Plenty of illustrations and photographs help to visualize the themes of this work. The last chapter, 'Case Studies', contains footbridges each with a short summary of main structural data and references for further reading.

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