HPC parapet elements

 

FDN has designed slender HPC (high performance concrete) parapet elements for Zeelsterbrug bridge in Eindhoven, which has been recently rebuilt due to insufficient bearing capacity. The parapets are up to 11m long and 3m wide and have rather complex shape. FDN was asked to design very light and durable elements. The problem was that the bridge deck does not have sufficient stiffness and parapets made of standard concrete would be too heavy for the beams in the bridge deck. For this reason FDN designed parapets from HPC 120. This material is strong and enables to design the elements with reduced weight. In order to comply with the weight requirements, the wall of the elements is only 5cm thick. The head is hollow, filled with polystyrene blocks.