Two Timber Road Bridges

Of the 300 or so timber bridges that have been constructed in Japan in the past decade, only twelve have been built to carry vehicle traffic; the others being for pedestrian use only. Japan has no code comparable to Europe's Eurocode 5 or AASHTO Section 13 in the USA governing timber bridges. There is, however, a manual of recommended general practices for the design and construction of timber bridges, but it is only applicable to road bridges in rural areas, like the two described in this paper.