The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) of the United States includes more than 600,000 highway bridges with spans exceeding 20 ft. Approximately one-fourth of the nation’s inventory are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, thus, repair, rehabilitation, or total replacement is required to maintain the highway bridges, reduce the probability of catastrophic failures, and/or increase the safety of commuting traffic. The total cost of required bridge maintenance activities requires a total annual budget of $15 billion compared to a $1 billion available budget at the Federal Highway Administration. The budget deficiency requires innovative techniques in bridge rehabilitation and replacement that provides the construction industry with sufficient savings in the direct and indirect cost of bridge maintenance activities. Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) techniques are introduced as a new-approach that uses innovative planning, design, and construction techniques in a cost-effective manner to reduce the onsite activities, utilize site-available topography and materials to reduce construction time and consumed materials, and minimize the use of heavy equipment. The use of Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (PBES) is a successful and innovative ABC technique that utilize elements fabricated off-site and transferred to the construction site at the erection time. PBES is currently adopted by the FHWA and State DoTs as a successful ABC technique for its time and cost savings. The off-site fabrication of bridge elements and systems allows for an improved quality control procedure, which increases the life span of the constructed bridge.
Subscribe to magazine