The web sheeting bonded to the upper and lower spar caps is what makes up the spar in either a wide or thin spar cap configuration, the thicker the overall airfoil, the stronger the spar is by pushing the caps further away from one another. So span wise tapering the spar caps makes sense due to the fact that the load diminishes the closer you get to the wing tips allowing you to remove excess weight.
Bob
Last edited by sensei; 10-11-2013 at 10:25 AM.