Technical improvements in the second-generation Eurocodes for steel and concrete bridge design Available to Purchase

The first-generation Eurocodes became mandatory within European Union and European Free Trade Association countries in March 2010, although voluntary take up started in many countries from around 2008. Work began almost immediately afterwards to pave the way for second-generation Eurocodes. Many of these second-generation Eurocode parts are now available, together with some completely new parts. All Eurocodes will be available to national standards bodies such as the British Standards Institution by March 2026, who must then publish their National Annexes by March 2027. The first-generation Eurocodes will be withdrawn in March 2028. The principal focus for the update has been to improve their ease of use, but inevitably many technical changes and additions have been made along the way. Essentially, these have been made where the existing rules are not sufficiently safe (provisions that may have inadequate reliability), too safe (provisions that may have excessive reliability), inadequate to cover more recently available materials (such as fibre-reinforced concrete or non-metallic reinforcements), construction types or modelling techniques, or where the existing rules are unclear in their application. This paper explores some of the key technical changes and additions made across steel and concrete bridge design and highlights the reasons behind these changes and the benefits.