Bridge strengthening “Manantiales” – Ensenada, Mexico

Project

The bridge "Manantiales" is located on the highway between Tijuana - Ensenada in the state of Baja California and was constructed in the 1970s. Each of the three spans has a length of approximately 36.00 m, and is located up to 25.00 m above the terrain. The 8.80 m wide roadway itself is supported by 4 girders.

In order to ensure that a heavy transport of over 500 tons could cross the bridge, it had to be structurally reinforced, as the bridge was not designed for such enormous loads.

As the bridge is located on the main connection axis between Tijuana and Ensenada, it was a project requirement that the road could not be closed at any time during the refurbishment work.

Solution

48 CarboStress? systems were installed for the static reinforcement. Each girder was equipped with 4 systems and reinforced with a total tension force of 880 kN.

In order not to damage the existing and intact prestressing cables inside the girders, a project-specific anchorage was designed that allowed all the 4 systems to be anchored to it at once. It is the first anchorage of its kind. This minimized the preparation work, which would have had to be executed at a great height and eliminated the risk of damaging the existing pre-tensioning.

The force transmission itself from the anchorage in the concrete was solved by means of a shear pin, which had space between the existing tension cables.

In order to increase the shear strength in the area of the force introduction, the beam was reinforced with SikaWrap? in the affected section.

CarboStress? offers a short installation time, a low weight of the CFRP tendons so that they can be installed by hand. In addition, we have years of experience in the field of bridge reinforcement. Thanks to these and many other characteristics, an optimal and cost-efficient reinforcement solution could be realized.