Taking the design of steel formwork in the concrete construction of a bridge pier as the background, combined with the modeling and simulation of the finite element analysis, the stress of each component of the steel formwork under the lateral pressure of concrete is analyzed. The optimal stress of the overall structure of steel formwork is determined by changing the stiffness and position of tie rod. The result shows that the reasonable position of tie rod can greatly improve the overall stress of structure at a certain stiffness of tie rod. The increase of tie rod stiffness can strengthen the stress of the structure. But this increase process is not endless, and is nonlinear. When the stiffness is increased to a certain extent, the structural stress reaches a relatively stable state. At the same time, the main problems in the design and checking calculation of steel formwork are put forward and the improvement suggestions are proposed.