Bridge-Costing

The contributors of bridge cost are:

1. Ground condition
2. Site location
3. Design
4. Site constraints
5. Labour and material costs

To achieve economic solution:

1. Use reinforced concrete deck for bridge span less than 20m.
2. Use precast prestressed beam for short span with limited access e.g. river or railway crossing.

Bridge cost is optimized by taking the balance between deck and substructure costs. For example, longer span may incur high deck cost (per square meter), but it reduces the number of piers and thus reduce the substructure cost.

The cost of external tendons is higher than internal tendons. However, savings can be made in concrete deck, installation of tendons and finally reduction in construction period.