A practical approach to the optimal design of precast, prestressed concrete highway bridge girder systems is presented. The approach aims at standardizing the optimal design of bridge systems, as opposed to standardizing girder sections. Structural system optimization is shown to be more relevant than conventional girder optimization for an arbitrarily chosen structural system. Bridge system optimization is defined as the optimization of both longitudinal and transverse bridge configurations (number of spans, number of girders, girder type, reinforcements and tendon layout). As a result, the preliminary design process is much simplified by using some developed design charts from which selection of the optimum bridge system, number and type of girders, and amounts of prestressed and non-prestressed reinforcements are easily obtained for a given bridge length, width and loading type.
