Prestressed concrete has been used extensively in U.S. bridge construction since its first introduction from Europe in the late 1940s. Literally thousands of highway bridges of both precast, prestressed concrete and cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete have been constructed in the United States. Railroad bridges utilizing prestressed concrete have become common as well. The use and evolution of prestressed concrete bridges is expected to continue in the years ahead.
Short-span Bridge
Short-span Bridge, as shown in Fig.18.1 for the purposes of this discussion, will be assumed to have a maximum span of 45ft (13.7m). It should be understood that this is an arbitrary figure, and there is no definite line of demarcation between short, moderate, and long spans in highly bridges. Short-span bridges are most efficiently made of precast prestressed-concrete hollow slabs, I-beams, solid slabs or cast-place solid slabs, and T-beams of relatively generous proportions.
