M. Myint Lwin, Federal Highway Administration and Shri Bhidé, National Concrete Bridge Council
On August 10, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). SAFETEA-LU authorizes the federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit for the years 2005-2009, providing an average of about $4.3 billion per year for the Highway Bridge Program. The new legislation includes $4.125 million for each of the fiscal years 2006 through 2009 for a High Performance Concrete (HPC) Bridge Technology Research and Deployment Program to conduct research and deploy technology relating to HPC bridges.
Motivation for the HPC program in the legislation is described in the National Concrete Bridge Council (NCBC) brochure entitled “Building a New Generation of Bridges – A Strategic Perspective for the Nation.”* The brochure defines the problem: 173,000 (36 percent) of America’s bridges are deficient, highway usage is increasing rapidly, and motorists are 11 times more likely to drive into a fatal accident in a bridge work zone than in normal traffic. Even though annual funding has been increasing, it will still take 57 years to repair or replace our deficient bridges at the current rate.
High performance concrete contributes to solving the bridge problem by meeting the program goals to Reduce Congestion and Improve Safety; Reduce Life-Cycle Costs; and Develop Engineering Design Criteria for innovative materials, structural systems, and construction techniques. The fourth goal of the program is to Train the Workforce, which is extremely important since HPC bridge quality is highly dependent on the people actually involved in bridge design and construction. The four goals for the HPC program are closely aligned with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Highways for LIFE program.
The recommendations for HPC bridges will provide a solid return on investment for the public. Based on the specific descriptions, implementation requirements, and timelines of the four goals, the HPC plan will reduce the number of deficient bridges, ease traffic congestion, reduce bridge construction time, save maintenance expenses, and lower life-cycle costs.
To initiate the HPC program, the FHWA and the National Concrete Bridge Council are working together to identify topics for research, deployment, and education. The topics will address the entire HPC bridge system including concrete materials, design, construction, structural arrangement, speed of construction, overall performance, and long service life.
Deployment and technology transfer topics include such items as worker training in HPC construction practices and certification, prototype bridge construction and showcases, newsletters, best practice manuals, university courses on HPC, and national conferences.
Research topics will address short-term needs (i.e., before and during construction) and longterm behavior, which is related to FHWA’s Long-Term Bridge Performance program. Research topics include such items as improving durability, developing maturity criteria, controlling cracking, increasing robustness of mixes under varying conditions, and validating HPC properties under field conditions.
Implementation of the HPC Bridge Technology Research and Deployment Program will allow the FHWA, State Departments of Transportation, and industry to work together in building a new generation of concrete bridges that are safe, durable, efficient, and cost effective.
Further Information
For more details or to provide comments, please contact the second author at [email protected] or 847-972-9100.
*See HPC Bridge Views Issue No. 20, March/April 2002.