Performance of Prestressed Concrete Highway Bridges in the United States- The First 40 Years

PCI Journal ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth F. Dunker ◽  
Basile G. Rabbat
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prestressed Concrete ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
The United States

scholarly journals Challenges in Bridge Health Monitoring: A Review

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4336
Author(s):  
Piervincenzo Rizzo ◽  
Alireza Enshaeian
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Anomalous Behavior ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
Bridge Health Monitoring ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Many ◽  
Major Factors

Bridge health monitoring is increasingly relevant for the maintenance of existing structures or new structures with innovative concepts that require validation of design predictions. In the United States there are more than 600,000 highway bridges. Nearly half of them (46.4%) are rated as fair while about 1 out of 13 (7.6%) is rated in poor condition. As such, the United States is one of those countries in which bridge health monitoring systems are installed in order to complement conventional periodic nondestructive inspections. This paper reviews the challenges associated with bridge health monitoring related to the detection of specific bridge characteristics that may be indicators of anomalous behavior. The methods used to detect loss of stiffness, time-dependent and temperature-dependent deformations, fatigue, corrosion, and scour are discussed. Owing to the extent of the existing scientific literature, this review focuses on systems installed in U.S. bridges over the last 20 years. These are all major factors that contribute to long-term degradation of bridges. Issues related to wireless sensor drifts are discussed as well. The scope of the paper is to help newcomers, practitioners, and researchers at navigating the many methodologies that have been proposed and developed in order to identify damage using data collected from sensors installed in real structures.

Seismic Design of Highway Bridges in the United States

1980 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Roland L. Sharpe ◽  
Ronald L. Mayes ◽  
James D. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Seismic Design ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
The United States

Most Likely Bridges as Roosting Habitat for Bats: Study for Iowa

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (24) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Basak Aldemir Bektas ◽  
Zachary Hans ◽  
Brent Phares ◽  
Emmanuel Nketah ◽  
Joe Carey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Species Distribution ◽  
Prestressed Concrete ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Distribution Data ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Presence Data

Bats play an important role in the natural balance of many ecosystems. There has been a growing concern about the bat population in the United States, mainly because of white-nose syndrome (WNS). The primary objective of this work was to better understand what types of bridges are the most likely to be used by bats as roosting locations. In one of the most comprehensive studies in the United States to date, 517 structures in the state of Iowa were inspected for evidence of bat roosting. Logistic regression models were fitted to identify structure, land cover distribution, and predicted bat species distribution characteristics that increase the probability of bat roosting. The final model indicated that probability of bat roosting on bridges increases under the following conditions: structures are prestressed concrete continuous, prestressed concrete or steel continuous; increased superstructure height above ground; increased superstructure depth; increased wetland coverage within a 0.1-mile radius of the structure; and increased number of potential bat species present at the location. The findings show that bridge characteristics, combined with land cover and bat species distribution data, are significant for higher probabilities of bat roosting. This information can be useful to transportation agencies as they plan bridge maintenance and renewal and can also help conservation efforts targeted toward bats. It is thought that the integration of objective, geospatial land cover data with potential bat presence data, and estimation of quantitative and relative influence of variables on probability of bat roosting are unique to this study.

Experience With Prestressed Concrete Airfield Pavements in the United States

PCI Journal ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl F. Renz ◽  
Phillip L. Melville
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prestressed Concrete ◽  
The United States

Fatigue Research on High-Performance Steels in Canada

2005 ◽  
pp. 45-56
Author(s):  
Robert G. Driver ◽  
Gilbert Y. Grondin ◽  
Colin MacDougall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fracture Toughness ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Controlled Processing ◽  
Steel Making ◽  
Canadian Market ◽  
Structural Grade ◽  
Near Future

<p>Compared to conventional structural grade steels, high-performance steel (HPS) pro­vides higher strength, improved weldability, greatly enhanced fracture toughness, and comparable ductility, as well as having "weathering" properties. The improved char­acteristics of HPS are achieved through lower levels of carbon and other elements, in conjunction with advanced steel-making practices using either quenching and tem­pering or thermo-mechanical controlled processing. All of these properties make HPS highly desirable for bridge applications. Indeed, although its development spans only the past decade, it is rapidly gaining popularity for use in highway bridges and is be­coming more widely available. Although many highway bridges have already been put into service in the United States, Canada has yet to implement this technology in bridges. Nevertheless, it is anticipated that the use ofHPS will become common in the Canadian market in the near future.</p>

scholarly journals RECENT DEVELOPMENT IN SEISMIC ISOLATION IN THE UNITED STATES*

1999 ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Seismic Isolation ◽  
Large Earthquake ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Test Machine ◽  
Isolation Systems ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Year 2000

The first seismically isolated building in the United States was completed in 1985. In the fourteen years since then, a total of not more that twenty-five new buildings and twenty-two retrofits of existing buildings hass been completed. In constrast, the number of base-isolated building in Japan completed over the same time period is of the order of a few hundred, and in China, where the first isloated building was completed in 1995, there are now over seventy base-isolated building.Currently there are several building codes that govern the desing of base-isolated buildings in the United States. New regulations have been prepared for the year 2000 and beyond, which are both complex and conservative, discouraging the use of seismic isolation. These codes require the engineer to desing isolators for very large displacements and mandate extensive prototype and production testing, thereby restricting isolation's application to special structures such as hospitals and emergency service centers where a requirement for operational functionality following large earthquake events justifies the cost premium and time delays associated with the use of seismic isolation.Conversely, seismic isolation is widely used throughout the United States for highway bridges and is governed by a single desing code that is simple tob use and not overly conservative. Isolation systems are being used for the retrofit of several very large bridges in California. The isolators to be used for this projects are very large, and a test machine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has just been completed to test these Isolators at full-scale, real-time rates.This paper will describe the current regulatory evironment for seismic isolation and the testing requirements for isolators. A description of the new test facility at UCSD will be included. 

Comprehensive Bridge Scour Evaluation Methodology

2000 ◽  
Vol 1696 (1) ◽  
pp. 204-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Lagasse ◽  
E. V. Richardson ◽  
L. W. Zevenbergen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Highway Bridges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Evaluation Methodology ◽  
Bridge Scour ◽  
State Highway ◽  
Existing Bridges ◽  
State Highway Agencies ◽  
Stream Instability

In the United States, bridge scour technology is discussed primarily in three FHWA publications: Hydraulic Engineering Circular (HEC) 18: Evaluating Scour at Bridges; HEC-2: Stream Stability at Highway Structures; and HEC-23: Bridge Scour and Stream Instability Countermeasures. Together, these documents provide guidance to state highway agencies that is necessary for completing comprehensive scour and stream instability evaluations for the design of new bridges and for repairing existing bridges. Experience has shown that the relationships among the three documents are not always readily apparent, and some scour evaluations have relied primarily on HEC-18. A comprehensive flowchart that illustrates the interrelationship among the three FHWA scour-related documents has been developed. In addition, in 1998, FHWA, TRB, and AASHTO sponsored a scanning review of European practice for bridge scour and stream instability countermeasures. In 1999, ASCE published a compendium of papers on stream stability and scour at highway bridges, and FHWA prepared an annotated bibliography to support revisions to the three HECs. It is anticipated that the flow-chart and the substantial information from the scanning review, the compendium, and the annotated bibliography will be included in the next revisions to HEC-18, HEC-20, and HEC-23. On the basis of information from these sources, a comprehensive approach to bridge scour and stream instability evaluations is outlined, and an overview of planned revisions to the three FHWA HECs is provided.

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