| The West Evans Avenue Bridge over South Santa Fe Drive was built in 1972. In 2009, an inspection was completed to assess the current condition of the bridge for recommendations on an upcoming rehabilitation project. Initial results through use of visual inspection and analysis for compliance with the AASHTO Manual for Bridge Evaluation and the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications determined retrofits to the steel girders containing the partial length cover plates would be necessary to extend the fatigue life of the bridge for another 20 plus years costing the City and County of Denver an additional one million dollars.;Due to the age of the bridge the most conservative estimates were used in the calculations for determining the remaining fatigue life of the steel girders. This prompted field-testing to measure the actual stress ranges on the bridge. 20 strain gauges were placed on the bottom flanges of the steel girders of concern from March 8, 2011, through April 11, 2011. The remaining fatigue life of the bridge was calculated at 53 years requiring no retrofits to the existing steel girders at this time. This thesis presents the analysis of the AASHTO calculations requiring retrofits for the steel girders, the procedure and results of the strain gauge testing resulting in no retrofits, and a cost savings for the City and County of Denver by completing both fatigue analysis. |
