Orthotropic steel decks have been applied after World War II to long-span bridges due to several advantages, such as light weight, high strength, rapid construction, durability, and life-cycle economy. However, depending on the relative slenderness of their components these decks may be quite susceptible to traffic-induced fatigue cracks. Therefore, fatigue problems in orthotropic steel bridge decks and predicting the remaining fatigue life of their welded details are nowadays a challenging problem for bridge engineers and researchers. The recommendations for the estimation of the remaining fatigue life of steel bridges recently prepared by the European Convention of Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) were applied to predict the remaining fatigue life of an existing orthotropic deck bridge built in 1981. This approach follows the principles and application rules in the Eurocodes. Detailed fatigue calculation and supplementary testing were performed for two details, which were estimated to be the most critical for fatigue according to preliminary evaluation. The prediction showed that the remaining fatigue life of the details is practically unlimited despite nearly 40 years of service.

The waste tyre-derived products, including whole tyres, tyre bales, shreds, chips, and crumb rubber, have begun to be used in various geotechnical applications. In particular, the use of tyre bales in the construction of a lightweight embankment on the soft ground has the potential to satisfy the demand for low-cost materials exhibiting such beneficial properties. This paper presents the comparison between the common medium sand-filled embankment and two tyre-baled structures with various granular interlayers: medium sand and rubber aggregate. To assess the efficiency of tyre bale application in soft ground conditions, two subsoils were considered in the study: sandy clay and silty clay. The stability and settlement analysis of embankments, as well as subsoil bearing capacity checking, were performed for all structural cases. Bishop’s limit equilibrium slicing method and the finite element method were used in the embankment and subsoil analysis. The comprehensive testing of tyre bales and filling materials was also carried out to obtain the set of parameters used in both analyses. The comparison allowed qualitatively assessing the effectiveness of using waste tyre bales as a filling of road embankment when founded on soft ground. The analysis revealed that the application of tyre bales generally enhanced the embankment stability, effectively reduced the embankment settlement, and reduced the normal stress in the subsoil. In the tyre-baled embankments, the slip surface is located mostly within the embankment slope, showing good rotational stability, independent of subsoil conditions.