Light Weight | Corrosion Resistance | Quick Installation Time | High Strength | Lower Life Cycle Cost
Light Weight. FRP bridge decks weigh about 10 to 20 percent as much as a structurally equivalent reinforced concrete deck. Using an FRP deck to replace a concrete deck reduces dead load significantly, meaning that load-rated structures may be re-rated to their original design capacity or aging structures may be kept in service longer before they are replaced. In new construction, lighter dead load can translate into savings throughout the structure, as the size of structural members and foundations is reduced accordingly. Back
Corrosion Resistance. Federal Highway Administration studies declare 30%-40% of US bridges structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Nationally, Ohio ranks second in total number of bridges and third in total number of deficient bridges. The key factor driving the state of deterioration of bridges is corrosion of steel. Further aggravating this issue is the use of road salt to combat winter weather (road salt acts as a catalyst that accelerates corrosion). The state of deterioration is so severe that despite design life projections of 50 years, ODOT reports the average bridge deck lasts only 15 years. Lastly, over the next 30 years, the number of deteriorated Ohio bridges will grow 80%. Because FRPs are not susceptible to the corrosion, FRP bridge decks offer a promising alternative to conventional materials in this highly demanding application. Back
Deteriorated Concrete Deck
Quick Installation Time. Fabricating deck panels in a factory and shipping them to the bridge site offers several advantages over cast-in-place concrete. Quality can be closely monitored in a controlled environment; the potential for weather delays is greatly reduced; and most significantly, bridge down-time can be substantially reduced. Once the superstructure is prepared, prefabricated FRP deck panels can be installed quickly, compared to the labor intensive process of erecting formwork, placing rebar, pouring and curing concrete, and removing the formwork needed to construct a cast-in-place deck. Back
High Strength. Since stiffness drives the design on FRP decks, the decks have high safety factors. Static tests of FRP decks greatly exceed the strengths of traditional material decks. The decks also have high ductility. Back
Lower Life Cycle Cost. Because of the projected durability of bridge decks made of FRP, savings in deck replacement and maintenance costs over a 100-year bridge service life could be much greater than the initial cost of the entire structure. The life cycle cost savings can be shown to more than offset the relatively high initial cost of the FRP materials compared to conventional material. However, as discussed below, long-range durability claims are viewed by the construction industry with some skepticism. Furthermore, few public agencies select materials based on projected life cycle costs. Instead, materials are chosen based on the engineer’s experience and judgment, agency preferences, and industry standard practice, usually with a strong bias toward minimizing initial construction cost. Back