Steel bridge poor fabrication practice

[TLycan]

Dear All,

I've the following problem,
the contractor fabricated the steel I-girders of a bridge , in which the shop-flange welded splice happened to lie in the bolted splice. that is between the bolts

is there any specs that prohibits such incident

Refer attached drawing

thanks in advance

 

[gtaw]

I looked at your sketch and read your post. I'm not clear where the weld in question is.

Is the weld a butt joint between two plates making up the lower flange or is the weld a T-joint between the web and the lower flange?

Best regards - Al

 

[TLycan]

Gtaw

it is a butt weld between two plates making up the lower flange
Regards

 

[gtaw]

I don't have my copy of the AWS Bridge Welding Code with me as I bounce down the rails with Amtrak, but I seem to recall that the location of all welds must be identified by the Engineer. Unauthorized welds are prohibited unless approved by the Engineer. I would think that would answer your question. That is, did the Engineer approve the location of the butt joint?

Best regards - Al

 

[IFRs]

That's a poor choice of location for the weld, but gtaw hit it on the head - go ask the EOR

 

[JAE]

Seems like a butt weld in a flange with tension might be a bad situation for fatigue issues.



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[TLycan]

Dear all,

I am the consultant, the one who will approve or disapprove the detail. unfortunately, this situation happened because of problems in the work-shop drawings accompanied by site conditions that required increasing the length of the girder leading to this situation.

the problem is a state of fact and I have to deal with it.

thought it is safe , strength and fatigue wise, I am wondering any specs that prohibit it

Thank you all for your responds

 

[IFRs]

Was any NDE done on the joint? At least MT if not RT ? Perhaps hardness also ?

 

[chicopee]

So by how much did you have to lengthen the girder? How was this extension added (riveted or welded) to the short beam? Also two plates were butt welded (assuming full penetration) together, then, this assembly was fillet welded to the top and bottom of the web plate( assuming full penetration), is that so? .

 

[JAE]

Not sure of which bridge code/specification you are under. I think AASHTO (in the US) would prohibit this or severely penalize you in fatigue calculations.

In AISC I think this type of detail would throw you up into a C or C' category. Not sure of AASHTO fatigue issues.

With the weld directly near the splice plate bolt holes I think you have even more of a problem but I can't point to the actual AASHTO section that would discuss this.

One thing you might do is talk to your local (or really any other) government transportation bridge department to see what their policies on this.

Butt welds on flanges doesn't sound right either - are you sure it wasn't a complete penetration groove weld?


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[TLycan]

JAE

and all

what I mean by butt weld is complete joint penetration (at least this is its common name in our country)

For the lengthening of the girder, this what has happened:
the girder length was 30meters, the required length is 30.8 meters
they cut the girder to two parts one 18meters and other 12 meters
in 12 meters they cut 4meters and added 4.8 meters complete joint penetration welding. now the part length is 12.8 meters

they joined 12.8 to 18 with bolted splice which unfortunately happened to have a CJP butt weld in the 18 part as described above

regards
and thanks for your response