Structural Bearings and Expansion Joints for Bridges

Since the use of steel, reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete as bridge building materials, structural bridge bearings had to be used. However, the gap between bridge and abutment is bridged by means of expansion joints. The task of bearings is to transfer the bearing reactions from the superstructure to the substructure fulfilling the design requirements du to displacement and rotation. According to force transmission, displacement and rotation, a distinction is made between various types of bearings. The aim of this paper is to give a very short state-of-the-art-report on bearings and expansion joints for bridges.