Fanny Appleton Pedestrian Bridge Detailing and Vibration Performance

The Fanny Appleton Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that consists of a slender vierendeel arch that was part of the Longfellow Bridge Design-Build project. During the preliminary design phase, the structure was identified as being potentially sensitive to pedestrian induced vibrations. As a result, a vibration analysis was performed at the 75% design level. The results were provided to the owner and the acceptable levels of acceleration due to vibrations for final design was agreed upon. Alterations to the steel structure were made to improve the vibration response of the bridge instead of incorporating tuned mass dampers to meet the agreed criteria. The vibration analysis performed for the final design was later confirmed by testing and simulations with groups of up to 50 pedestrians.

View content