Shallow Foundation Design for Highway Bridges - a PDH Online Course for Engineers, Surveyors and Architects

Shallow Foundation Design for Highway Bridges

Course Outline

This 8 hour course will cover the design procedures, soil mechanics and other essential information regarding the design of shallow foundations for highway bridges. Shallow foundation design for buildings will also be covered. Case studies and design examples will be presented to aid in understanding the course material.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student would have learned the following:

How to define shallow foundations;
How to define relative density;
How to calculate the stress below a footing;
How to calculate the void ratio;
How to calculate the volume of gas in a soil sample;
Types of bearing capacity failures;
How to determine the dry density of soils;
Results of aggradation;
The results of scour;
How to calculate the gross ultimate bearing pressure;
Characteristics of organic soils;
How to determine the bearing capacity for cohesion;
Primary considerations that affect the selection and design of shallow foundations;
How pore-water pressure affects effective stress;
Types of scour protection;
How to estimate the allowable bearing pressure for various soil and rocks;
How rock mass quality relates to rock quality designation;
How to determine foundation settlement in soils;
How to determine active earth pressures;
How to determine active earth pressure coefficients;
The service load design load group for various structures;
How to calculate the lateral earth pressures;
How to determine the factor of safety against sliding; and
Advantages of using mat foundations.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for those wanting an understanding of Shallow Foundations for Highway Bridges. It could be especially useful for professionals working in transportation and geotechnical engineering, site design as well as construction professionals.

Benefit to Attendee

This course is designed so that the intended audience will benefit immediately with the information to aid in the effective design of Shallow Foundations for Highway Bridges.

Course Introduction

Shallow foundation design occurs during first stages of design for highway bridges. There are various types of shallow foundations, including isolated spread footings, continuous strip spread footings, and spread footings with cantilever stem walls. The underlying soil conditions, types of soil and depth of foundation are all interconnected in the design process for shallow foundations.

Course Content

This course will cover the design procedures, soil mechanics and other essential information regarding the design of shallow foundations for highway bridges. Shallow foundation design for buildings will also be covered. Case studies and design examples will be presented to aid in understanding the course material. A quiz is included at the end to aid in understanding the course material.

Shallow Foundation Design for Highway Bridges

(http://isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/FHWA/010943.pdf )

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

This course is designed so that the intended audience will benefit immediately with the information to aid in the effective design of Shallow Foundations for Highway Bridges.

Using good engineering judgment is always paramount in any situation. Utilizing good judgment and the knowledge gained in this course will aid the reader with the knowledge to be a success in Shallow Foundation` for Highway Bridges.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites:

Geotechnical Engineering Software:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/geotech/software/softwaredetail.cfm

Federal Highway Administration:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/

Transportation Research Board:
http://www.trb.com

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.