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Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

(OP)
Bike trails, ATV trails and snowmobile trails are becoming more popular all the time and most of them need bridges.  Are there any design standards for these "off-road" bridges or are most of them designed on the basis of AISC specs?  Are there any websites that would have information on these types of bridges?
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RE: Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

I did some preliminary work about 6 years ago on a group of railroad bridges that were planned for conversion to a hiking trail (the Rails to Trails program). At that time we could not locate any formal standards. There was a non-technical book that described some successful conversions, but I don't recall the title or author.  We did our preliminary designs using engineering judgement based on accepted standards, such as AISC. Lack of funding caused a dramatic reduction in scope of the project (the trail was established, but the bridges were not converted).

RE: Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

Trail bridges could be classified also as pedestrian or briddle path bridges. These should be designed for the pedestrian loads (AASHTO) and checked for occasional light vehicle (maintenance, emergencies, deliveries). The vehicle loads should be limited to the type of load which the bridge would likely support. The typical specification could be seen here:
http://www.continentalbridge.com/assets/pdf/spec.pdf

RE: Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

As a follow-up to Wiktor's post, look at the AASHTO Guide Spec for Pedestrian Bridges

RE: Trail Bridge Design Criteria?

(OP)
Thanks for all the good input!

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