special building construction systems ”bridge construction

During the past decade, various construction systems have been ap-plied in building several highway bridges and elevated roads for differentpurposes. The objective of this study is to evaluate these systems, basedon economic and engineering grounds. The study presents these systems andhighlights their engineering concepts, suitability for site conditions,advantages and disadvantages, and major applications in Egypt. It alsoconducts a comparative economic and engineering analysis of all construc-tion systems in view of the Egyptian construction environment. The analy-sis led to basic conclusions concerning the construction system(s) recom-mended for each site condition, and whether the used system was the opti-mum choice for each of the study’s bridges. A call is made for betterutilization of local resources by restricting the use of advanced con-struction systems to such cased where the use of traditional systems isimpractical or not allowed. Another call is made for the use of alternatedesigns and construction options, which should help the owner select theoptimum design for the bridge.