Ship impact forces on bridges over waterways have long been based on stochastic principles and considerations, enabling safe and economical designs when planning new bridge structures accord- ing to the current reliability concept. Some of the background to the current regulations in the Eu- rocode and the associated National Annex are presented. In addition to the planning of new bridges, existing bridges also had to be assessed with regard to ship impact in the past. For this purpose, BAW has established a concept of the remaining service life which, under reliability considerations for the total service life of a bridge, allows a reduction of the impact loads depending on the remain- ing service life, provided that the bridge is inconspicuous with regard to ship impact. The method- ology is explained. The construction of a bridge with construction pits and construction aids (auxil- iary supports), which are located in the fairway of a waterway, lies between the planning (new con- struction) and the existing (operation) of a bridge. For this purpose, the methodology of the remain- ing service life is used for temporary structures. The presentation summarizes the German practice concerning ship impact against bridge piers.
Claus Kunz (Wed,) studied this question.