U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Focus
| Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations |
Publication Number: FHWA-SA-98-018
Date: January 1998
Lead States Team for Assessment, Protection, and Rehabilitation of Reinforced Concrete Structures
Assessing the condition of concrete bridges and planning a repair and rehabilitation strategy is a complex task, but one made easier by several of the innovative technologies developed or evaluated under the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). Encouraging States to use these technologies is the job of the Lead States team for assessment, protection, and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures.
The team is composed of bridge engineers from Florida, Missouri, and Virginia-States who took the lead in promoting the new SHRP technologies. The engineers were selected because of their experience and expertise in several key technologies for bridge assessment and repair, including cathodic protection and electrochemical chloride extraction. The team also has considerable experience with rapid repair techniques for bridge decks. "This is one of the most promising technologies to come out of SHRP," says Michael Sprinkel of the Virginia Transportation Research Council, head of the Lead States team.
The Lead States team has a daunting task: to encourage more widespread adoption of 24 highly diverse technologies developed or evaluated under SHRP (see below). These technologies range from quick methods for taking and testing samples from concrete bridges to cutting-edge nondestructive evaluation technologies for bridge decks. "The team has more products than it has people, and many of these products don't have much in common with each other," says Sprinkel.
The Lead States team is currently assessing the results of a questionnaire sent recently to State highway agencies, asking about their experiences with the SHRP bridge assessment and rehabilitation technologies. The results of the survey will help the team to determine which SHRP products States need assistance in implementing. Highway agency and industry staff with information on how SHRP products are being used are encouraged to contact Sprinkel.
The team is also developing summary reports on the status of the 24 SHRP products. "The reports will help us determine if we need to promote the product better, refine the product, or drop the product from implementation status and possibly recommend more research," says Sprinkel.
For more information, or to provide the team with information on how you are using the SHRP concrete products, contact Michael Sprinkel (phone: 804-293-1941; fax: 804-293-1990; email: mms2c@virginia.edu).
SHRP Concrete Bridge Products
The Lead States Team for assessment, protection, and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures covers the following SHRP products:
Diagnostic Tools for Concrete Bridge Assessment
Concrete Permeability Tests
Concrete Sealer Tests
Electrochemical Concrete Bridge Protection and Rehabilitation Techniques
Concrete Bridge Protection and Rehabilitation Techniques (Other than Electrochemical)
Concrete Performance
Concrete Strength Tests
The SHRP reports mentioned above are available from the Transportation Research Board bookstore (phone: 202-334-3214; fax: 202-334-2519; Web: www2.nas.edu/trbbooks/SHRP1.html).
+Available from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (phone: 800-213-3475; fax: 800-525-5562).
Showcase Workshops Introduce SHRP Bridge Assessment and Repair Technologies
The Lead States team's work to encourage States to adopt innovative technologies for assessing and repairing portland cement concrete bridges is augmented by a series of showcase workshops offered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
The Methodology for Removal, Repair, Rehabilitation, and Protection of Concrete Structures and Physical Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Structures Showcase Workshops bring highway agency staff up to speed on the technologies evaluated or developed under SHRP for assessing and repairing steel-reinforced concrete structures.
The methodology session covers corrosion of the reinforcing steel in concrete and how to prevent or mitigate this corrosion. It also introduces ways to minimize cracking in new concrete and techniques for replacing deteriorated concrete.
The physical assessment session covers the causes of deterioration in steel-reinforced concrete bridges and ways to evaluate deteriorating bridges.
For more information, contact Donald Jackson at FHWA (phone: 202-366-6770; fax: 202-366-7909; email: donald.jackson@fhwa.dot.gov).
Florida, a member of the Lead States team, is using cathodic protection technology on the Bryant Patton Bridges in Appalachicola.
