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What is a “fracture-critical” bridge?

April 26, 2017bridge

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What is a “fracture-critical” bridge?

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Fracture Critical bridges would be expected to fail/collapse if one of the main load-carrying components or connections would fail, such as a beam, girder, or truss chord. Bridges designed today typically have multiple load paths to create redundancy; therefore failure of a single component should not result in collapse.

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A. A fracture-critical bridge is one that does not contain redundant supporting elements. This means that if those key supports fail, the bridge would be in danger of collapse. This does not mean the bridge is inherently unsafe, only that there is a lack of redundancy in its design.