Talk:Orthotropic deck

Railway Bridges
I removed the reference to railway bridges as I don't believe it. (If someone has a specific example (& citation) then by all means please reinstate it.) Many rail bridges superficially resemble orthotropic decks because they have steel deck plates on cross beams. The deck plates play no part in the strength of the bridge (maybe some small amount but not by design); they simply stop the ballast falling out.

As to reduced deck thickness, rail bridges are more likely to be half-through than road bridges, so the main beams do not add to the deck thickness. The deck thickness is a product of the cross beams which are relatively constant regardless of the main beams.

Finally the loads on a rail bridge are fixed to the line of the rails so there is little advantage to designing for a deck plate as opposed to a road or foot bridge where loads can be spread across the deck. Dyaimz (talk) 21:56, 30 May 2009 (UTC)