Outdated bridge codes underestimate impact, risking safety of truss bridges.
Truss bridge floors were tested in the field, showing that current bridge codes overestimate impact on these types of bridges. The dynamic response caused unexpected vibrations, leading to high impact values in stringers away from the load and low values in floor beams under heavy load. The static response showed stringers sharing loads under wheel loads, not considered in current methods, resulting in lower transverse distribution factors than specified.