Section 2: Guide Specifications
Anchor: #i999405Overview
Specifications that are not binding to bridge design, but may be useful or even vital to the design process are referred to as guide specifications. This section identifies and describes guide specifications recommended by TxDOT.
Anchor: #i999415AASHTO Guide Specifications
AASHTO publishes a number of specifications and manuals, other than those discussed in Section 1, Mandatory Specifications, relating to bridge design that may be useful to the designer.
Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges — Load and Resistance Factor Design. This document is a complete rewrite of the bridge specification, with load and resistance factors based on probability analyses. In coming years, bridges in Texas will be designed using this specification. This places it in the guidance category.
Guide Specifications for Design and Construction of Segmental Concrete Bridges. This document contains guidelines for the design and construction of segmental concrete bridges. The guidelines are the recommendations of a team of nationally recognized experts, composed of consulting engineers, contractors, academicians, researchers, state highway agencies, and federal agency representatives from throughout the United States as well as representatives from Canada, France, Switzerland, and Germany.
The guidelines are comprehensive in nature and embody several new concepts that are significant departures from previous design and construction provisions. They are formulated and based on both observed performance of bridges of this type and on recent research conducted in the United States and abroad.
This document was originally prepared by the Post-Tensioning Institute under National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 20-7/32 with the title, “Design and Construction Specifications for Segmental Concrete Bridges,” in February 1988. It was subsequently studied and approved as a guide specification by the AASHTO Highway Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures in 1989.
Additional AASHTO Publications. There are several other guide specifications, standard specifications, and manuals published by AASHTO. Some of those include:
- Guide Specifications for Alternate Load Factor Design Procedures for Steel Beam Bridges Using Braced Compact Sections
- Guide Specifications for Fracture Critical Non-Redundant Steel Bridge Members
- Guide Specifications for Horizontally Curved Highway Bridges
- Guide Specifications for Bridge Railings
- Guide Specifications for Fatigue Design of Steel Bridges
- Guide Specifications for Fatigue Evaluation of Existing Steel Bridges
- Guide Specifications for Strength Evaluation of Existing Steel and Concrete Bridges
- Guide Specification and Commentary for Vessel Collision Design of Highway Bridges
- Guide Specifications for Strength Design of Truss Bridges (Load Factor Design)
- Guide Specifications for Distribution of Loads for Highway Bridges
- Guide Specifications for Structural Design of Sound Barriers
- Guide Specifications for Aluminum Highway Bridges
- Guide Design Specifications for Bridge Temporary Works
- Guide Specifications for Design of Pedestrian Bridges
- Standard Specifications for Movable Highway Bridges
- Manual for Maintenance Inspection of Bridges
- Manual for Condition Evaluation of Bridges