The 102nd Avenue Bridge over Groat Road – Design Concept and Challenges

The new 102nd Avenue Bridge over Groat Road in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is a 113 m long “character” bridge that spans over Groat Road which is located in a 22 m deep ravine. The bridge replaced a 104 year old bridge on steel trestles. The selection of the replacement bridge had to take into account several factors including marginally stable steep ravine slopes and traffic disruptions in the urban environment. An integral abutment bridge design concept was developed, consisting of an 83 m long main steel span connected to 15.6 m long integral concrete abutments supported on hybrid steel and concrete piles at the back and sliding bearings at the front of each abutment. This concept created several design challenges:

• Thermal movement range is considered to be at the upper limits for integral abutment bridges;

• Potential for uplift at the back of the abutments due to the abutments acting as short back-spans;

• Force continuity between the 83 m steel span and the abutments; and

• Construction sequence required to connect the concrete abutments to the steel span.

This paper presents the design concept and approaches, and construction methods for this structure.