Attainment of a moment resisting structure through rehabilitation of a simply supported bridge

Because of problems related to the management of the existing bridges patrimony due to new functional demands, the competent Authorities are asking for structures virtually free or with greatly reduced maintenance It is known that the temporal performance of structures does not depend just on the related performance of construction materials, but is deeply affected by their coupling, by the detailing, the static scheme (with the consequent state of stress and deformation) and finally by the boundary conditions (such as enviroivnental condition, volume and kind of traffic...). To overcome the problem of an increased volume of traffic together with the maintenance and management of bridges and flyovers. Road Authorities tend to accept major construction or retrofitting costs when an initially increased expense turns out to be economically favourable in a long period. In fact, any temporary interruption or limitation in traffic flow, caused by the presence of works is extremely expensive and considered as inappropriate by the community. IA8 (Integral abutment bridge) concept with the elimination of all bearings and expansion joints seems to adequately respond to the mentioned new functional demands with potentially very limited future maintenance problems By ilie way, lABs. must be carefully designed and built because of a number of possible inconveniences The paper will present a case study focusing on the refurbishment of a bridge responding to new functional demands such as greater user comfort and reduced future maintenance in order to obtain a kind of integral abutment bridge from a former simply supported structure with joints and bearings.