The construction of new masonry bridges inspired by Paul Séjourné

Paper in proceeding, 2021

Masonry arch bridges for rail transport in Europe are still in use 200 years after they were built. Traditional masonry bridges support granular fill which in turn supports the roadway or railway tracks spreading the load on the arch. The stiffness requirements for high speed rail bridges mean that they have to be heavy, in which case masonry bridges supporting fill may again become attractive in comparison with steel or concrete. In this paper we describe the optimization of the bridge geometry to carry the approximately hydrostatic loading from the fill.