Summary: | Canada’s bridge industry is witnessing a momentum for the use of aluminium in pedestrian and vehicular bridges. This paper describes the results of six years of developing tangible innovative aluminium details and structural arrangements. Various projects of different scales, which are presented, include two architectural pony truss pedestrian bridges, the first GMAW welded aluminium deck on steel girders vehicular bridge in Canada and a signature pedestrian bridge where an 80 m long through truss connects to a curved girder structure. The development of a simple aluminium girder pedestrian bridge concept also inspired an innovative composite structural system involving a friction stir welding (FSW)-welded aluminium deck connected to longitudinal girders. These various projects generated code-update propositions for the aluminium section of the CSA S6 standard. Featured topics in this paper relate to bolted connections for decks, barriers and truss chords, welded straight and curved girders, expansion joints and designs for fatigue and fabrication. The context is ideal to reflect the roadmap towards 100% aluminium vehicular bridges.
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