The first comprehensive guide to bridge design in two decades, Theory and Design of Bridges combines traditional design methods with modern techniques to provide viable, alternative design approaches that can be used to ensure safe and economical bridges.

Indeed, this essential working reference for practicing civil engineers uniquely reflects today's gradual transition from allowable stress design to Load and Resistance Factor Design by presenting LRFD specifications - developed from research requested by AASH-TO and initiated by the NCHRP - which spell out new provisions in areas ranging from load models and load factors to bridge substructure elements and foundations.

Theory and Design of Bridges provides early coverage of the aesthetic and economic factors involved in bridge engineering, the basic principles of effective bridge management, and various design approaches and bridge loads, providing a solid conceptual foundation of bridge response under service conditions and at failure. It then moves on to cover virtually every type of bridge, treating them within the context of a coherent structural framework, including: conventional concrete bridges - emphasizing prestressed concrete as the prevalent form of bridge construction, with coverage of new trends in prestressed applications; steel bridges - ranging from I-beam superstructure systems to horizontally curved systems, with detailed discussion of such key topics as ductility, brittle fracture, redundancy, and fatigue; orthotropic deck bridges - highlighted by practical coverage of the still-effective Pelikan-Esslinger method, first introduced in 1957; segmental concrete bridges - reviewed within the context of the groundbreaking 1989 AASHTO guidelines, which mark a major departure from previous design and construction provisions; trusses, movable bridges, and cable-stayed bridges - including their general features, design approaches, and specific examples; elastic arch bridges - with a special focus on buckling and geometry imperfections and associated stability considerations; special bridges - practical insight into structures characterized by unusual member geometry, structural configurations and combinations, and support conditions.