Concrete Bridges Concrete is the most-used construction material for bridges in the United States, and indeed in the world. The application of prestressing to bridges has grown rapidly and steadily, beginning in 1949 with high-strength steel wires in the Walnut Lane Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the Federal Highway Administrations 1994 National Bridge Inventory data, from 1950 to the early 1990s, prestressed concrete bridges have gone from being virtually nonexistent to representing over 50 percent of all bridges built in the United States. Prestressing has also played an important role in extending the span capability of concrete bridges. By the late 1990s, spliced-girder spans reached a record 100 m (330 ft). Construction of segmental concrete bridges began in the United States in 1974.Curretly, close to 200 segmental concrete bridges have been built or are under construction, with spans up to 240 m (800 ft). Late in the 1970s, cable-stayed construction raised the bar for concrete bridges. By 1982, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida, had set a new record for concrete bridges, with a main span of 365 m (1,200 ft). The next year, the Dames Point Bridge in Jacksonville, Florida, extended the record to 400 m (1,300 ft).HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETECompressive StrengthFor many years the design of precast prestressed concrete girders was based on concrete compressive strengths of 34 to 41 MPa (5,000 to 6,000 psi). This strength level served the industry well and provided the basis for establishing the prestressed concrete bridge industry in the United States. In the 1990s the industry began to utilize higher concrete compressive strengths in design, and at the start of the new millennium the industry is poised to accept the use of concrete compressive strengths up to 70 MPa (10,000 psi). For the future, the industry needs to seek ways to effectively utilize even higher concrete compressive strengths. The ready-mixed concrete industry has been producing concretes with compressive strengths in excess of 70 MPa for over 20 years. Several demonstration projects have illustrated that strengths above 70 MPa can be achieved for prestressed concrete girders. Barriers need to be removed to allow the greater use of these materials. At the same time, owners, designers, contractors, and fabricators need to be more receptive to the use of higher-compressive-strength concretes.DurabilityHigh-performance concrete (HPC) can be specified as high compressive strength (e.g., in prestressed girders) or as conventional compressive strength with improved durability (e.g., in cast-in-place bridge decks and substructures). There is a need to develop a better understanding of all the parameters that affect durability, such as resistance to chemical, electrochemical, and environmental mechanisms that attack the integrity of the material. Significant differences might occur in the long-term durability of adjacent twin structures constructed at the same time using identical materials. This reveals our lack of understanding and control of the parameters that affect durability.NEW MATERIALSConcrete design specifications have in the past focused primarily on the compressive strength. Concrete is slowly moving toward an engineered material whose direct performance can be altered by the designer. Material properties such as permeability, ductility, freeze-thaw resistance, durability, abrasion resistance, reactivity, and strength will be specified. The HPC initiative has gone a long way in promoting these specifications, but much more can be done. Additives, such a fibers or chemicals, can significantly alter the basic properties of concrete. Other new materials, such as fiber-reinforced polymer composites, nonmetallic reinforcement (glass fiber-reinforced and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, etc.), new metallic reinforcements, or high-strength steel reinforcement can also be used to enhance the performance of what is considered to be a traditional material. Higher-strength reinforcement could be particularly useful when coupled with high-strength concrete. As our natural resources diminish, alternative aggregate sources (e.g., recycled aggregate) and further replacement of cementitious materials with recycled products are being examined. Highly reactive cements and reactive aggregates will be concerns of the past as new materials with long-term durability become commonplace.New materials will also find increasing demand in repair and retrofitting. As the bridge inventory continues to get older, increasing the usable life of structures will become critical. Some innovative materials, although not economical for complete bridges, will find their niche in retrofit and repair.OPTIMIZED SECTIONSIn early applications of prestressed concrete to bridges, designers developed their own ideas of the best girder sections. The result is that each contractor used slightly different girder shapes.