Independent calculations for UK motorway cantilever signage structure
About the Project
The M1 motorway signage upgrade demanded a cantilever ring structure supported by a steel gridage substructure, secured with screw piles on a slope embankment. Positioned over one of England’s busiest motorways, this independent verification project required meticulous calculation and modeling to ensure the structure met stringent Eurocode standards, particularly for fatigue under high traffic load conditions. The Polish-based engineering firm Richter Associates, specializing in temporary works and ground engineering, undertook this task with the goal of guaranteeing structural safety and compliance.
Engineering Challenges
The project’s engineering challenges centered around verifying a complex cantilever structure for high-demand signage along the M1 motorway. With traffic density posing continuous load stresses, the design had to endure repetitive load cycles and potential fatigue over time. This mandated compliance with strict standards under CD 365 and Eurocode regulations, particularly targeting fatigue resilience in high-load environments. The cantilever structure’s steel frame, positioned on an embankment, needed to be assessed for its ability to support significant wind loads, dead loads, and accidental loads, particularly given the demanding slope conditions of the motorway embankment. These loads had to be handled effectively across a series of 12 screw piles that served as the foundation, distributing weight while providing the structure with necessary stability in variable soil conditions.
Adding to the complexity, the cantilever ring was designed as a boundary structure, which required customized design techniques to ensure the model responded dynamically to varying load cases. For example, the team needed to account for the interaction between lateral loads and support reactions that arose at specific levels of the structure, according to predefined guidance levels under CD 365. In response to Eurocode’s stringent fatigue check requirements, the structure also needed to meet precise stress range values across multiple load combinations. This meant that each weld, bolt, stiffener, and connecting component in the steel gridage frame needed a specific assessment under the structural load patterns expected from heavy traffic flow and environmental factors. Any discrepancies in stress values, even minor ones, could compromise the structure’s overall fatigue life, and any errors could prove costly or disruptive.
On top of these technical demands, the UK temporary works market’s quick turnaround culture added pressure to deliver verifications within a very short timeframe. The requirements necessitated an efficient, high-capability software solution capable of managing complex calculations while adapting to real-time adjustments in load requirements and structural responses. Such expectations are not uncommon for projects of this nature but did demand close integration across modeling platforms to allow quick revisions, particularly when real-world variances or new load requirements were introduced during verification. This combination of heavy-duty compliance needs and tight deadlines placed exceptional demands on the verification team to find a robust solution that could handle the intricate data flow and speed of delivery.
Solutions and Results
IDEA StatiCa’s advanced analysis features, particularly its capabilities for accurate fatigue and stress range assessments, provided essential support in meeting the M1 project’s unique requirements. To simulate real-world load distributions, the Richter Associates team initially employed Tekla Structural Designer, generating an overarching structural model to assess base-level stresses and internal forces. This foundational modeling gave a preliminary insight into how the steel gridage frame would respond under various load types, including dead loads, superimposed loads, and the specified robustness loads. The Tekla Structural Designer model included reactions for each individual pile and was adapted to simulate loads that closely matched the real-world configuration required for the M1 motorway’s embankment conditions.
Principal Engineer Maciej Adamczyk developed an innovative approach by integrating IDEA StatiCa directly into the workflow, using the software’s connection design functionalities to accelerate load, reaction, and stress-range assessments in a singular, cohesive model. He began by inputting individual pile reactions and structuring the steel gridage frame according to real-site specifications, allowing each pile to act as an independent point of response within the model. This adaptation meant that when the team updated load values—such as when additional robustness loads were applied to test the structure’s resilience under hypothetical extreme conditions—Adamczyk could instantly integrate these new loads without needing to transfer data between different software platforms.
Once the primary stress analysis was validated, the team turned to the IDEA StatiCa software to create a global model that accurately reflected the intricate connections within the cantilever’s steel structure. By using IDEA StatiCa for connection modeling, Adamczyk could assess each bolt, plate, and weld connection’s performance under Eurocode’s strict stress requirements. The comprehensive model allowed the team to check all local effects, peaks in stress, and load response within a single system, making it possible to see how the cantilever frame as a whole would behave under different load patterns, including those defined by CD 365’s fatigue check regulations. Through this, Adamczyk ensured that the design met Eurocode fatigue guidelines, with specific checks on stress ranges for plates, welds, and other critical elements. By adopting IDEA StatiCa’s singular model, the team could quickly make adjustments, as this configuration eliminated the need to use multiple software platforms and manually re-input each load combination, which saved significant project time.
Adamczyk’s choice to consolidate the modeling approach in IDEA StatiCa provided substantial time savings and increased accuracy by reducing redundant calculations across software platforms. With this single-model approach, he could observe, test, and adjust all aspects of the structure’s load-bearing capabilities, generating immediate results when load requirements were revised. In response to the unique requirements of CD 365 and Eurocode fatigue checks, he was also able to provide reliable stress-range results for each weld and stiffener, confirming the structure’s compliance and durability under traffic-induced stress. Ultimately, by using IDEA StatiCa, Richter Associates completed the project on time and with high confidence in the structure’s ability to meet its design life expectations, making it a highly efficient and cost-effective solution for the independent verification process required.
About Richter Associates
Founded in 1990, Richter Associates specializes in temporary works design, although their wide-ranging expertise means they offer highly developed engineering services for all construction projects. With a wealth of experience working on buildings, bridges, geotechnical works, marine work, refurbishments, railways, infrastructure, and demolition, there is no construction challenge they cannot accept. They are known for taking on and delivering the complex projects that others cannot, and their company culture is a driving force behind this success. They bring together the engineers and administrators, and partners and practices that make up their team into a unified, deeply collaborative organization.
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