Sustainable Construction A Life Cycle Approach in Engineering

tween this bridge and a reinforced concrete bridge with expansion joints. The comparison is
made in terms of the overall life cycle costs by performing the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA)
and also the environmental performance by making a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of both
solutions.
2 THE CASE STUDY
The object of the study is a bridge built over the river Leduån in northern Sweden. This is an
integral abutment bridge with a single 40 meters span. The purpose of the study was to make a
comparative life cycle analysis of this bridge with a two span reinforced concrete bridge. The
length of each span of the concrete bridge is 18 meters with a middle pier in the river and end
screens at the supports. Both bridges have a 5 meters wide cross section.
The integral bridge was part of an international research project commissioned to study the
integral abutment bridges with respect to their efficiency in terms of design and economy. It
was therefore equipped with several measurement devices and was monitored for about 18
months to determine the impact of seasonal variations on its behavior.
The design service life of both the bridges was 120 years. The main contributors to the
project are as follows:
Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH);
Luleå University of Technology (LTU);
Ramböll Sweden;
University of Liege (ULg);
Arcelor Profil Luxembourg S.A.
2.1 Integral abutment bridge
The design of this bridge was performed by Ramböll office in Luleå, Sweden. The total span
length of the bridge is 40 meters. The superstructure consists of two I-beam girders supporting
a concrete deck making up a steel-concrete composite cross section. The abutments are supported
by 6 circular steel end bearing piles driven into the supporting ground. The end screens
of the abutments are cast around the piles, which therefore makes it an integral abutment.
Table 1 indicates the bill of material for this bridge.
Table 1: Bill of materials of the Leduån IA bridge
Material Quantity Unit
Concrete Grade C40/50 108.5 m3
Reinforcemnt Grade B500 6.3 ton
Steel Grade S355 (web) & S460 (flanges) 41.4 ton
Steel piles (φ170x10) Grade S440 13.9 ton
Steel pipes (φ600x1.6) Grade S355 0.6 ton
Steel studs (φ22) 1000.0 Unit
Paint (Epoxy and Polyurethane) 3000.0 m2
Polystyrene 1.5 m2
The constructor provided all the detailed information regarding the transportation of these
materials to the construction site. This data was required for making the environmental impact
assessment study of the bridge construction. The main steel elements such as girders, bracings
and the steel piles were transported from Finland by truck covering 700 km distance to the construction
site. Local concrete factory provided the concrete and a local distributor supplied the
reinforcements.
152