AASHTO Specification extended the LFD procedures by including Autostress Design concepts in the Guide Specification for ALFD procedures. In the ALFD method, the moment-rotation behavior of the pier section of a continuous-span bridge affects the design requirements at Overload and Maximum load. However, the typical moment-rotation curve used to calculate the automoments for composite sections is based on a single component test for shored construction and the ALFD method applies only to bridges with compact sections. To develop improved moment-rotation characteristics of composite plate girder sections for unshored construction, a component test is performed on a 1/2 scale specimen. Test results show that the moment-rotation curve of the ALFD method for composite sections can give conservative results for bridges built without shores.