This paper presents the construction details, testing, and monitoring results of four FRP reinforced concrete bridges recently constructed in North America. Three bridges, Joffre Bridge, Wotton Bridge, and Magog Bridge, are located in Quebec, Canada. While the fourth one, Morristown Bridge, is located in Vermont, USA. All four bridges are girder-type with main girders made of either steel or prestressed concrete. The main girders are simply supported over spans ranging from 26.2 to 43.0 m. The deck is a 200 to 230 mm thickness concrete slab continuous over spans of 2.30 to 3.7 m. Different types and reinforcement ratios of FRP reinforcing bars as well as conventional steel were used as reinforcement for the concrete deck slab. Furthermore, the four bridges are located on different highway categories, which means different traffic volume and environmental conditions (frequency of using de-icing salts). The bridges are well instrumented at critical locations for internal temperature and strain data collection using fibre optic sensors. These gauges are used to monitor the deck behaviour from the time of construction to several years after completion of construction. Three of the bridges were tested for service performance using standard truckloads. The construction procedure, field tests and monitoring results, under real service conditions, showed very competitive performance to concrete bridges reinforced with steel. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E211395.
Samenvatting