The majority of Simple Made Continuous bridges currently in use are constructed with concrete diaphragms. This report presents the results of numerical analysis and laboratory testing of an alternative simple-made-continuous connection scheme that uses steel diaphragms in lieu of concrete diaphragms. A bridge using steel diaphragms was constructed by the Colorado Department of Transportation in 2005 serves as a basis for the research presented herein....

"Highlights the many techniques that earned the Glenwood Canyon highway project the American Society of Civil Engineers' Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award for 1993."

In recent years, prestressed concrete bridges have dominated the bridge type selection processes in Colorado. This can be attributed to a lack of steel mills combined with a strong presence of precast fabricators in the region. In addition, a lack of readily available economical and innovative procedures to design and construct steel bridges has hindered the industry in certain areas such as Colorado. During this research it was identified that designing...

This report summarizes the analytical studies on the seismic performance of typical Colorado concrete bridges, particularly those with curved and skewed configurations. A set of bridge models with different geometric configurations derived from. a prototype bridge selected in Denver area were studied. Some discussions about the connection modeling are carried out in terms of the interior bent support. For the displacement-based and force-based designs,...