New Bridge Deck Repair Technique Will Cut Maintenance Costs While Keeping Bridges Safe

Posted: Dec 3, 2024

Researchers at the University of Utah developed a repair technique that will reduce maintenance costs and sustain the safety of bridges that are suffering from delamination of their concrete bridge decks. Reinforced concrete bridge decks are sometimes built with a combination of precast concrete panels and cast-in-place concrete. In several states, bridge deck delamination has been observed. The researchers developed five retrofit methods to strengthen the deck panels and studied those methods on full-scale bridge deck elements, including those salvaged from a damaged bridge in Salt Lake City. They found that an epoxy injection method can be used to create composite action in between the precast and cast-in-place portions of the deck. This repair method can eliminate damage to such bridge decks, which will reduce maintenance costs.

Chris P. Pantelides, Ph.D.
University of Utah

Numerical Simulation of Strengthening of Bridge Decks Built with Partial Depth Precast Concrete Deck Panels
MPC-24-532