CURVED STEEL BOX GIRDERS FOR THE ADVANCED LIGHT RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM IN VANCOUVER.
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Vancouver is building a 21. 4 km advanced light rapid transit (ALRT) system of which 13. 0 km are elevated. Due to physical constraints at the Grandview Cut, it was judged that instead of the standard prestressed concrete box girders, continuous steel box girders with a composite concrete deck should be used. The crossing of the Cut is 25 m above the rail track and has 100 m radius curves. Also, the dual tracks diverge from the standard 4. 0 m spacing to the 11. 6 m necessary to enter the adjacent Broadway centre platform station. Single columns are used to support the double guideway which has maximum spans of 40 m. This paper describes the Vancouver ALRT system and the design of the crossing. The project design criteria and design loadings are presented and discussed. Particular attention is paid to the different methods of accounting for the slip characteristics of the rail fasteners, the effect of the continuously welded rails on the support structures and the horizontal arch effect of the continuous curved bridge anchored to the adjacent structures. The actual design is based on upper and lower bounds of the effects of different possible characteristics. Analytic procedures are outlined and the design of structural components is described in detail, with special reference to the steel box girders themselves. 7 refs.
