Inthispaper,afiniteelementmethodisdevelopedtonumericallyevaluatetheshearcoefficientofTimoshenko'sbeamwithmultiplyconneetedcrosssection.Withfocusonanalyzingshearstressesdistributedattheneutralaxisofthebeam,animproveddefinitionoftheshearcoefficientispresented.Basedonthisdefinition,aGalerkin-typefiniteelementformulationisproposedtoanalyzetheshearstressesandsheardeflections.Numericalsolutionsoftheexamplesforsometypicalcross-sectionsarecomparedwiththetheoreticalresults.TheshearcoefficientoftowersectionsoftheTsingMaBridgeiscalculatedbyuseoftheproposedapproach,sothatthefiniteelementmodelingofthebridgecanbedevelopedwiththeaccuratevaluesofthesectionalproperties.