How are bridge piers secured?
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I’m not a professional, but there’s one question that has always puzzled me: how are the piers of bridges spanning the Yangtze River or the Yellow River fixed in place in the river? Why doesn’t the constant erosion caused by the river water affect those piers over time?
For information on various bridge foundations and their construction methods, please visit http://hi.baidu.com/%B0%D7%B3%D5123/blog/item/8b09d2ef47423136acafd594.html. For design aspects, refer to the \"Code for Design of Foundations of Highway Bridges and Culverts\" JTJ024－85
★ Pier foundations are supported by a base, which can be pile foundations or natural foundations; they may extend into rock layers or not. However, during design, factors such as upper loads, water flow, and impacts are taken into account, along with a certain safety margin, so they are very secure. ★ Because deep foundations were laid at the bottom of the riverbed, and then high-strength concrete was poured over them. So the bridge piers are vertical and extend deep into the underlying rock layers, so they won’t collapse. ★ No issue with anchorage points. In civil engineering, there are calculation formulas used to determine the embedment length of foundations based on the loads acting on them; it is not necessary for the foundations to extend deep into rock layers. For example, bridges located downstream of the Yangtze River generally do not extend into rock.