Currently in Sweden, the life-cycle measures applied on bridge edge beams may take up to 60% of the total costs incurred along the road bridges’ life span. Moreover, significant disturbances for the road users are caused. Therefore, the Swedish Transport Administration has started a project to develop alternative edge beam design solutions that are better for society in terms of cost. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether these proposals can qualify for more detailed studies through an evaluation and comparison based on a comprehensive life-cycle cost analysis. The alternatives including the standard design are applied to typical Swedish bridges. The impact of the values of the parameters with the largest influence is investigated by sensitivity analyses. Results with different life-cycle strategies are shown. The positive influences in the total life-cycle cost of a stainless steel reinforced solution and of the enhanced construction technique are estimated. The concrete edge beam integrated with the deck seems to be favourable, which is in line with international experience observed. Different designs may be appropriate depending on the bridge case and the life-cycle strategy. The Swedish Transport Administration will carry out a demonstration project in a bridge with one of the proposals.

Bridge edge beams in Sweden may incur up to 60% of the life-cycle measures along thebridge’s life span. In addition, road works results in traffic disturbances and, thus, increaseduser costs. Consequently, the Swedish Transport Administration started a project to developsolutions that can become better for the society in terms of cost. A life-cycle cost analysis wascarried out to evaluate which proposals could qualify for more detailed studies and a demonstrationproject. The results showed that a solution without edge beam may result optimal.Even though such design solution might still fulfill the functional requirements of the edgebeam, a structural analysis should be performed to evaluate its robustness.The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the edge beam on the structural behaviorof bridge deck slab overhangs. A non-linear 3D finite element model in the commercial softwareABAQUS was developed for this purpose and validated using experimental data availablein the literature. The load-displacement curves and the failure modes are observed. Theshear and bending moment capacity of the overhang is studied. An assessment of existingdesign methods is presented in light of the load capacity obtained for each case.The results show that the edge beam contributes to a higher load capacity of the bridgeoverhang than of that without edge beam. The shear capacity of the slab is more efficientlydistributed, due to a stiffening effect in the critical cross section close to the transversal freeedge. Therefore, the effect of removing the edge beam should be investigated for the bridgecase at hand to account for the loss of robustness compared to a case with an edge beam. Existing design methods should be reviewed in order to account for the influence of an edgebeam.