Correspondence. Long Span Reinforced Concrete Bridges
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Correspondence. Long Span Reinforced Concrete Bridges

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The Structural Engineer
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The Structural Engineer, Volume 13, Issue 6, 1935

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The Structural Engineer, Volume 13, Issue 6, 1935

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Standard: £10 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

SIR,-The paper reported in the April issue on La Roche Guyon Bridge, which was presented at a joint meeting of the Institution of Structural Engineers and the British Section of the Societe des Inghieurs Clivils de France, appears to be in the nature of further propaganda on the use of long span bridges in ferroconcrete. At a similar joint meeting some time ago, this subject was dealt with in a more general way. At both meetings the authors of the papers were advocating the use of reinforced
concrete in preference to steel for long span bridges. Statements have been made that reinforced concrete is more economical than steel for spans of well over 1,000 ft. It is difficult to believe that such extravagant claims would bear impartial investigation. They are apparently arrived at by using very high stresses in the concrete-in fact far greater than have ever been dreamed of in this country. It would therefore seem that the comparison is made by using high stresses in the concrete and normal stresses in the steel. If a concrete structure can be over-stressed with safety, surely it would seem still safer to over-stress a steel one by a proportionate
amount, in which case the comparative economic span lengths would be very different from those claimed.

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Opinion Issue 6

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