Ship impact loads on construction pits of bridges

While ship impact loads for the design and dimensioning of bridges over waterways are adequately regulated for a large number of cases in codes, cf. EN 1991-1-7 (2006), there is a lack for the approach of impact loads during the construction period. The primary focus here is on the safety of the construction site situation with a view to protecting the lives of the construction workers and secondarily on avoiding major economic damage. The ship impact load approach from the relevant standards would not be feasible in some cases, would be uneconomical and would possibly not be implemented. In view of the concept of the remaining service life, which is already used for existing structures, [8], the concept was transferred to short periods of time such as construction periods. In recent years, BAW, the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, has developed impact loads for construction pits in waterways, protecting structures in front of these pits as well as auxiliary supports for bridge structures and has created a concept.