Prestressed Concrete Piles in Jointless Bridges

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the feasibility of using precast, prestressed concrete piles in jointless bridges and to develop design criteria and pile-abutment joint details that can be used in practice. This phase of the project comprised an experimental and analytical study of load-deflection behavior of HP 10-42 and 12x12 in. (305x305 mm) precast, prestressed piles, and a computer analysis of the pile-soil interaction. The test results show that the proposed joint would allow the use of concrete piles in integral abutment bridges of lengths comparable to those with steel piles. A field investigation to study the performance of two prestressed concrete piles in a full-scale integral abutment bridge is currently being carried out.