Steel-soil composite bridge: an alternative design solution for short-span bridges towards sustainability

The construction sector is a major source of greenhouse gases. Under the increasing concern in climate change and growing construction activities, the whole sector is challenged to shift focus toward sustainable solutions. The traditional procurement often prioritizes the technical and economic viability, while their environmental performance is overlooked. Today’s designers are urged to seek new design options to reduce the environmental burdens. Sweden owns more than 24574 bridges and most of them are short spans. Among them, the slab frame bridge (CFB) is a common solution. Soil steel composite bridge (SSCB), alternatively, is a functionally equivalent solution to CFB and shows advantages in low cost and easy construction. This paper compares the environmental performance between these two bridge types based on life cycle assessment (LCA). The analysis and result shows that, the SSCB is preferable over CFB in most of the examined environmental indicators.