BS 5400


BS 5400 was a British Standard code of practice for the design and construction of steel, concrete and composite bridges. It was applicable to highway, railway and pedestrian bridges. It has now been replaced by the European standard, BS EN 1991-2_2003 and other Eurocodes for the design of steel and concrete structures.
The standard specifies the requirements and the code of practice on design of steel, concrete and composite bridges that use steel sections as well as the materials and workmanship in bridge erection.
The standard also includes the specification and calculation of standard bridge loads, the application of the limit state principles, analysis, and fatigue load calculation and the reservoir method for fatigue load cycle counting.
The standard also covers the structural design of bridge foundations and design and requirements on bridge bearings for ordinary and moving bridges.
In 2010, BS 5400 was superseded by the Structural Eurocodes for the design of new bridges. However, BS 5400 still forms the basis of assessment standards for existing highway and railway structures. Some of the prescriptive clauses from the old code have been re-cast in a form consistent with the principles of the Eurocodes and presented as advisory material within British Standard Published Documents; these exist as non-contradictory complementary information to the Eurocodes and offer means of compliance with the requirements of the Eurocodes, typically using closed-form solutions familiar to the engineer experienced in the application of BS5400.

Different parts of BS 5400

BS 5400 consists of ten main parts: