2021

Gavin Gautreau (Gavin.Gautreau@LA.GOV), Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development
Adele Lee, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

This paper document the early portions of an ongoing Geotechnical Asset Management (GAM) project within the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD). It describes the logic and software utilized to develop the retaining wall inventory for the DOTD and outlines a GAM path forward for the Department. Keywords: Geotechnical Asset Management, ESRI Collector App

John Thornley, Golder Associates Inc.
Barry Benko, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Alyson Mathers, Golder Associates Inc.

Since 2010 The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has been a leader in the development of Geotechnical Asset Management (GAM) as part of a proactive approach to identify and rate the condition of geotechnical infrastructure.  Efforts have included, for example, a retaining structure database that has catalogued retaining structures throughout Alaska.  On November 30, 2018, a Moment Magnitude (MW) 7.1 earthquake struck southcentral Alaska, home of more than half of the state’s population.  Damage to infrastructure was significant in several roadway corridors in the region.  The GAM database was utilized as an important tool to assist in the identification of earthquake damaged retaining structures.  Lessons learned from this effort are outlined in this paper.  They include discussion on the elements of the database that were effective and others that may be improved upon in the future.  The information gathered from the field observations was also collected in such a manner that it could be added to the GAM database in the future as another snapshot in time for the retaining structures evaluated after the earthquake.

Hao Liu, University of Kansas
Jie Han, University of Kansas
Robert Parsons, University of Kansas

Expansion and contraction of Integral abutment bridges (IAB) due to temperature change force abutments to move into and away from the backfill, thus increasing earth pressures behind the abutments and inducing bending moment in piles (if used). Many researchers and engineers have conducted field monitoring of IABs to evaluate the effects of temperature change on bridges, which may have different abutment and foundation types, bridge geometries, and soil characteristics. To have a better understanding of IABs under different conditions, this paper summarizes and assesses the common practices in IABs and their behavior due to temperature change, including (a) air and bridge temperatures; (b) abutment movement; (c) pile response; and (d) earth pressure behind the abutment. In addition to temperature change, bridge skew and length have effects on the above behavior. This review found that both bending moment of piles near the bottom of abutment and axial load of piles fluctuated with temperature. Redistribution of dead loads among bridge components due to planar temperature gradients and earth pressure changes behind the abutment may contribute to axial load fluctuation in piles. Earth pressure ratcheting was observed when rotation was the primary abutment movement mode. However, some IABs did not have any earth pressure ratcheting phenomenon behind the abutment due to disturbance of backfill during bridge expansion when translation is the dominant abutment movement mode. Field monitoring showed that earth pressure coefficient decreased with depth and the existing theories often overestimated the earth pressure at the bottom of the abutment during bridge expansion.