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Federal Highway Administration
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Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000


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Bridges & Structures

Abutment and Wingwall Design Example

  1. Obtain Design Criteria Design Step 7.1

    Commentary for 1: Includes: Concrete strength, Concrete density, Reinforcing steel strength, Superstructure information, Span information, Required abutment height, Load information

  2. Select Optimum Abutment Type Design Step 7.2

    Commentary for 1: Abutment types include: Cantilever, Gravity, Counterfort, Mechanically-stabilized earth, Stub, semi-stub, or shelf, Open or spill-through, Integral or semi-integral

  3. Reinforced concrete cantilever abutment?

  4. Select Preliminary Abutment Dimensions Design Step 7.3

    Commentary for 4: Includes: Backwall, Stem, Footing

  5. Design selected abutment type.

  6. Compute Dead Load Effects S3.5.1 Design Step 7.4

    Commentary for 6: Includes: Dead load reactions from superstructure (DC and DW), Abutment stem dead load, Abutment footing dead load

  7. Compute Live Load Effects S3.6.1 Design Step 7.5

    Commentary for 7: Longitudinally, place live load such that reaction at abutment is maximized. Transversely, place maximum number of design trucks and lanes across roadway width to produce maximum live load effect on abutment.

  8. Compute Other Load Effects S3.6 - S3.12 Design Step 7.6

    Commentary for 8: Includes: Braking force (S3.6.4), Wind loads (on live load and on superstructure) (S3.8), Earthquake loads (S3.10), Earth pressure (S3.11), Live load surcharge (S3.11.6.2), Temperature loads (S3.12)

  9. Analyze and Combine Force Effects S3.4.1 Design Step 7.7

  10. Pile foundation or spread footing?

    Commentary for 10: Abutment foundation type is determined based on the geotechnical investigation (see Chart 1)

  11. Check Stability and Safety Requirements S11.6 Design Step 7.8

    Commentary for 11: Considerations include: Overall stability, Pile requirements (axial resistance and lateral resistance), Overturning, Uplift

  12. Design spread footing.

  13. Design Abutment Backwall Section 5 Design Step 7.9

    Commentary for 13: Design includes: Design for flexure, Design for shear, Check crack control

  14. Design Abutment Stem Section 5 Design Step 7.10

    Commentary for 14: Design includes: Design for flexure, Design for shear, Check crack control

  15. Is a pile foundation being used?

  16. Design Step P

  17. Design Abutment Footing Section 5 Design Step 7.11

    Commentary for 17: Design includes: Design for flexure, Design for shear, Check crack control

  18. Draw Schematic of Final Abutment Design Design Step 7.12

  19. Return to Main Flowchart

Flow:

1 go to 2
2 go to 3
3 if yes go to 4
3 if no go to 5
4 go to 6
6 go to 7
7 go to 8
8 go to 9
9 go to 10
10 if pile foundation go to 11
10 if spread footing go to 12
11 go to 13
12 go to 13
13 go to 14
14 go to 15
15 if yes go to 16
15 if no go to 17
16 go to 17
17 go to 18
18 go to 19

Note:

Although this flowchart is written for abutment design, it also applies to wingwall design.
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Updated: 06/27/2017
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000