Technical Guide. Timber Bridges : How to ensure their durability = Guide technique. Ponts en bois : comment assurer leur durabilité

With the environmental concerns, the bridges owners rediscover timber construction and its cordial aspect. In addition, the timber bridges are light and easy to erect: they thushave a strong potential of development, in particular for pedestrianbridges. However, the durability of these structures is mainly based on thechoice of the right initial drawings who protect the wood. It is alsobased on the quality of maintenance. Moreover, in the event ofdemolition of a bridge whose wood were treated with chemicalpreservatives, the bridge owners are responsible for the producedwastes. After the history of timber bridges, the guide published by Sétra : * recalls the essential concepts on the anatomy and themechanical and physical properties of this material; * presents the wood attackers and the methods used to preservewood, underlining the disadvantages of certain chemicalmethods; * exposes the principal engineering drawings to ensure theprotection of timber structures; * provides recommendations to the project managers toformalize a good choice of wood, to choose the treatments ofpreservation and the engineering drawings.