Appendix - 1

BRIEF NOTE ON DESIGN AND INVESTIGATION FOR

HIGH LEVEL MINOR / MEDIUM BRIDGES ON DRAINS
(Well Foundation)
The design of a bridge across a drain demands elaborate attention be
paid not only to route location, potential traffic flow and structural and
foundation details but also to the characteristics of the drain beneath.
To evaluate the characteristics of the drain it is essential to collect
information on aspects such as channel stability, sediment discharge,
scour and sediment deposition and hydrodynamic forces. Predictions
about what may happen in particular circumstances also need to be
made. For such predictions, one of the important data required is the
hydraulic data. In the present case for any drainage basin no flood
hydrograph or rainfall distribution for 24 hours or 72 hours are
available and therefore discharge computations are proposed by
Dickens Modified coefficient for the drainage area and in the present
case this has been taken as 6, based on detailed studies taken on All
India data and it is also compared with the result obtained from the
following method.
1. Submergence period or disposal period shall be calculated from the
equation
385 . 0
3
87 . 0
1
]
1

H
L
T
Where T = Time of concentration in hours.
L = Length of drain from the farthest point of catchment
upstream of the bridge site i.e. to the point under
consideration.
H = Drop in level from the farthest point to the bridge
site under consideration.
Minimum value of T shall be taken 72 hours. The discharge Q shall
be calculated from the equation.

c
c
whereT
T
CIA
Q ,
3
0343 . 0
4
3
Time of concentration in days
2. Waterway:
Shall be calculated by LACEYs regime width formula as in all the
drains subsoil is quite erodible, but 50 years frequency HFL lies
above the banks. 40% restriction in regime waterway shall be
provided. Experience on such bridges has been that upto 50%
restriction no problems have been observed. Therefore, L=4.75Q
Where L= Regime waterway in metres
Q= Design discharge in cumec
3. Scour Depth:
Shall be calculated for 25-30% more discharge, to provide for
Floods of higher magnitude and lower frequency depending on
catchment area in Km
2
. Based on restricted clear waterway,
discharge in unit width of waterway shall be computed and scour
depth shall be computed by following formula:
3
1
2
34 . 1

,
_

f
q
d
sm
Where
d
sm
= mean depth of scour in metres below HFL
f = silt factor as obtained by actual subsoil investigation and
prescribed tests.
For the project area in general this is 0.70 (based on sub soil
investigations).
q = unit width discharge based on effective / clear waterway after
due consideration of flow and enhanced discharge as per Indian
Roads Congress provisions, which are as follows.
1 Catchment area in
Km
2
0-3000 3000-10,000 And so
on.
2 % Increase over
design discharge
30 30-20 -
This is to provide an adequate margin of safety. The scour for
Foundations shall be provided for a larger discharge over the Design
Discharge.
Maximum scour for Pier Foundation shall be taken as 2 d
sm
The same for abutment Foundations shall be taken as 1.27 d
sm
.
However to cater for future extension of waterway Abutment well
shall be adequately designed to function as Pier well, if need be.
Maximum scour in combination of Flood with Seismic condition shall
be taken as 0.9x2 d
sm
= 1.8 d
sm
4. Minimum Depth of Foundation :
In case of sand in grip zone of the well foundation shall be = 8/3
d
sm
below the HFL and in case of clay in the grip zone the minimum
depth of foundation shall be 3 d
sm
below HFL (High Flood Level)
As the bridges over the major drains are minor bridges and almost
all of them are less than 100 m in length, the flow concentration
shall not be considered, which is observed in case of bridges of
more than 300m length.
5. Sub-Soil Investigation:
Shall be carried over as per various provisions for preliminary
investigations consisting of 2 to 3 boreholes per bridge site, which
is quite sufficient as no major variation in sub-soil strata has been
observed. The sub soil strata consists of layers of clayey sand or
sandy clay of varying thickness and in various combinations of
these layers. The average value of silt factor has been observed
from 0.67 to 0.70 at various sites
Based on consideration of bearing capacity and the properties of
soil as found after due testing in laboratory as per IS procedure for
soil testing, the depth of Foundation varies from 12m to 15m. For
these depths minimum feasible well diameter and steining
thickness as per Indian Roads Congress requirement works out
satisfactorily which indicates that the proposed design of
Foundation is quite safe from Hydraulic and Structural
consideration and most economical also. Abutment shall be over
Double D wells in Foundation.
6. Superstructure Arrangement:
3 girder T-Beam arrangement has been proposed in various
combinations of 10.5m centre to centre of bearings and 12.5m
centre to centre of bearings with 7.5m wide roadway Deck slab as
per the Indian Road Congress and safe for two lanes of IRC class A
Loading without footpath provision.
7. Sub Structure:
Consists of RCC plate type solid pier and RCC Pier cap over RCC
well cap in M-25 grade controlled concrete.
Abutment shall consist of 3 columns and top beam over a double D
well cap.
8. General:
Total concrete per metre length of the bridge works out to be from
12-14 cum, which is well within the range as per experience in such
type of bridges. Also total steel reinforcement steel per cum of
concrete varies from 100 to 115 kg which is well within the range
obtained for such type of structures.