Long-term earth pressure measurements of two largespan flexible culverts in Norway

This paper shows the first results of a research project concerning the full-scale tests of two flexible culverts in Norway. The project is called: “Large-Span Flexible Corrugated Steel Culverts” (CULVERTS) and is realized at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway, thanks to financial support provided by The European Community under a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship.

Several full-scale tests have been performed in the field to validate the long-term performance and load bearing capacity of these structures. The primary objective of the CULVERTS project is connected with realization of long-term field earth pressure measurements of two existing large-span flexible culverts in full-scale under live loads and various climate conditions in Norway. The first culvert is a horizontal ellipse located at Dovre, about 350 km north of Oslo and serving as a road tunnel for Euroroad no. 6. The second structure Tolpinrud is a pipe-arch culvert located at Honefoss, about 60 km North of Oslo and serves as a rail-road tunnel under a main road.

In the CULVERTS project experimental results obtained in the years 1982–1988 by dr Jan Vaslestad are compared with experimental results obtained in the years 2005–2006. The originality of the project consist in the fact that such long observation period of changes in this kind of structures has never been done so far. The results are presented on figures and charts

• Abstract

• Introduction

• Description of the instrumented structures

• Instrumentation and measurements

• Results of long-term earth pressure measurements

• Conclusions

• Acknowledgements

• References