In the conventional design of steel reinforcement for a simply supported skew bridge, a set
of reinforcement is usually placed parallel to free edge while the other set is designed
parallel to the fixed edge. However, this kind of arrangement is not the most efficient way
of placing the reinforcement. The reason is that in some parts of the bridge, the moment of
resistance is provided by an obtuse angle formed by the reinforcement bars which is
ineffective in resisting flexure. In fact, the most efficient way of the arrangement of
reinforcement under most loading conditions is to place one set of bars perpendicular to the
fixed edge while placing the other set parallel to the fixed end as recommended by L. A.
Clark (1970). In this way, considerable savings would be obtained from the orthogonal
arrangement of reinforcement.
