ABSTRACT
While long-span bridges are predominately designed for their dead load, the need for understanding the traffic loading is only growing as many of these bridges are becoming old. This chapter explores the current state of the art in long-span bridge traffic loading. It starts by considering the development of the older models and introduces traffic microsimulation as the current state of the art in long-span bridge traffic load modelling. Through this approach, supplemented with field observations, the importance of congestion events, traffic composition, and vehicle spacing is discussed. The chapter ends with some case studies of the use of such approaches for the management and assessment of large multi-span cable-stayed and suspension bridges.
