ABSTRACT
Decks made of precast beams are widely used. Precasting gives the benefi t of good control of the quality of construction, while the deck construction is simple and repetitive. Such decks are usually statically determinate, although techniques are available to render them partially or totally continuous. Statically determinate beams are frequently economically competitive with continuous beams, due to the lack of secondary sources of bending moment and locked-in stresses. Modern techniques which allow several spans to be linked to minimise the number of roadway expansion joints have eliminated one of the main obstacles to the use of statically determinate spans.
