Spread Footing Foundation for Highway Bridge Applications

Abstract

Shallow spread footings on soil are becoming an attractive choice for supporting highway bridge structures. However, to encourage their utilization, well-documented, comprehensive case histories must be established and made accessible to practicing bridge and geotechnical engineers. In addition, performance prediction methods for spread footing foundations must be verified further using carefully compiled field data. This paper is the writers' attempt toward achieving these goals, presenting details of a recently completed research project on 30 bridge spread footings in Ohio. The project data show that spread footings can be used successfully to support highway bridge structures on both cohesionless and cohesive soils, provided that the subsoil conditions are suitable and that the existing performance prediction methods are accurate.