Project Information
Link to Latest Report: June 2021 Progress Report
Final Report Coming Soon
Background:
Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) has been implemented with greater frequency over the last decade, with successful projects geographically spread across the country. As these initial deployments of ABC methods age, it becomes necessary to inspect the structures for both maintenance decision making and for assurance of adequate service life performance. Detailed inspection information allows for active management of the infrastructure and assessment of performance via key metrics. As such, inspection protocols will be established and a broad assessment of the performance of past ABC projects across the nation using consistent and effective inspection methods and metrics will be performed.
Objective:
The main objectives of this project are to utilize and add to current inspection protocols used for traditional bridge structures to establish protocols for ABC projects, deploy the established protocols, and summarize collected data.
Scope:
This project will explore current inspection methods for traditional bridge structures, establish inspection protocols for deployment by all partner universities, and summarize the data collected. The following tasks will be performed to achieve the project objective:
- Task 1 – Literature Review
- A literature review will be completed to help guide the preparation of the inspection methods. The LTBP program protocols will serve as the primary source for defining current inspection methodology.
- Task 2 – Establish Inspection Protocol
- Using information gathered in Task 1, an inspection protocol will be developed and established for inspection of ABC bridges. It is anticipated the LTBP program protocols will greatly assist this effort. Anticipated guidance provided in the protocol include: consistent photos from established viewpoints, necessary equipment, level of detail of data collection, and others.
- Task 3 – Field Inspections
- Protocols will be provided to partner universities for deployment within their respective states. Subsequently, a broad geographic sampling of ABC bridges will be inspected with approximately 2 to 3 bridges inspected by each university. A full report will accompany each inspection.
- Task 4 – Summary of Inspection Results
- Upon completion of all inspections, the reports will be reviewed and summarized to determine trends in the data and to provide a current performance assessment of ABC projects.
- Task 5 – Final Report
- The project findings will be prepared by means of a final report. This document will include the identified best practices, case studies, and other key project findings.
Research Team:
Principal Investigator: Dr. Katelyn Freeseman
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Brent Phares
Research Engineer: Justin Dahlberg
Previous Reports: