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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Roads and Bridges

Bridge deck

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

nounCommon term

In civil engineering & construction, bridge deck means: The part of a bridge that forms the road or path surface and carries the traffic, supported by beams, girders, cables or arches.

In Turkish: köprü tabliyesi, tabliye

How it is used

Engineers design, cast or launch bridge decks and talk about deck width, the deck slab and deck waterproofing. Decks can be concrete, steel or composite (steel girders with a concrete slab).

Example sentences

  1. The bridge deck is 14 metres wide, with two lanes and a footpath.

  2. We'll pour the bridge deck in three stages to control cracking.

Common collocations

  • deck slab
  • composite deck
  • deck waterproofing
  • incrementally launched deck
  • deck width
  • abutmentThe support at each end of a bridge that carries the deck and holds back the soil of the approach embankment.
  • pierAn intermediate support of a bridge between its two ends, usually a concrete column or wall that carries the deck loads down to the foundations.
  • bearingA device placed between a bridge deck and its supports that transfers loads while allowing controlled movement and rotation, for example from temperature changes.
  • expansion jointA planned gap between two parts of a structure or road that lets them expand and contract with temperature and other movements without cracking.
  • spanThe distance between two supports of a beam, slab or bridge. As a verb, to span means to stretch across a space from one support to another.

More terms: Roads and Bridges

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