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LONG-TERM BRIDGE PERFORMANCE (LTBP) NEWSLETTER

WINNER OF THE 2023 STUDENT 

DATA ANALYSIS CONTEST

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) selected 

one paper for the first-place award in the Bridge category 

of the 2023 Long-Term Infrastructure Performance 

(LTIP) Student Data Analysis Contest. The student 

winner is Lawrencia Akuffo from Rowan University for 

“Quantification of the Correlation Between Bridge Skew 

Angle and Deterioration Rate.”

Ms. Akuffo received an all-expenses paid trip to attend 

the 2024 Transportation Research Board (TRB) 103rd 

Annual Meeting in January 2024. FHWA will recognize 

Ms. Akuffo with an award certificate at the LTBP Lectern 

Session during the TRB annual meeting and she will 

have the opportunity to present her paper during the 

LTBP session. 

The LTBP Session 2197 will be held Monday, 

January 8, 2024, from 3:45 to 5:30 p.m. in Room 206 

of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in 

Washington, DC.

The LTIP Student Data Analysis Contest encourages 

students to use the LTBP Web portal, InfoBridgeTM,

(1)

and/or the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) 

Web portal, LTPP InfoPaveTM,

(2)

 to address specific 

infrastructure issues or challenges. Entries for the 2024 

contest are due August 1, 2024.

RESEARCH UPDATE

Full-Scale Accelerated Bridge Performance Testing

The LTBP Program has completed the first phase of testing 

on a full-scale steel girder bridge subjected to accelerated 

live and environmental loading at the Bridge Evaluation and 

Accelerated Structural Testing Laboratory at the Rutgers 

Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation.The 

objectives of this research are to evaluate the long-term 

performance of reinforced concrete bridge decks, and 

the effectiveness of common overlay systems. Another 

objective is to determine and quantify the ability of 

nondestructive evaluation and structural monitoring to 

identify and track the deterioration of bridges. 

During phase Ӏ, the bridge deck experienced the effects of 

2 million passes of 60-kip tandem rolling load, 4,000 gal 

of 6 percent brine solution application, and 85 rounds of 

freeze–thaw cycles, after which the deck was visually 

inspected, and a condition rating of 5 was assigned. 

Additionally, during phase Ӏ, 13 rounds of nondestructive 

test data were collected to assess deck deterioration. 

Phase II of the research project is currently underway. 

Before initiating testing, the research team prepared the 

deck for the installation of overlays using hydrodemolition 

to remove deteriorated concrete to just below the top layer 

of reinforcement in the deck. Two overlays were chosen 

for assessment: latex-modified concrete (LMC) and 

ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC). Each overlay 

was placed side-by-side in the longitudinal direction, the 

longitudinal joint sealed, and accelerated environmental 

and live loading was initiated to study the performance of 

the overlays. As of September 2023, during phase II, the 

specimen has experienced approximately 2 million passes 

of live load in 6 different longitudinal positions (4 million 

total including phase Ӏ), 1,045 additional gal (5,045 total 

including phase Ӏ) of 6 percent brine application, and 

55 additional freeze–thaw cycles (155 total including 

phase Ӏ). The visual inspection on March 21, 2023, rated 

the condition of the LMC deck as 7 and the UHPC deck 

as 8. The project is expected to continue through 2024.

Both images source: FHWA.

 Figure 1. Phase II of accelerated bridge performance testing 

showing surface preparation with hydrodemolition and the 

completed overlays installed.

Winter 2023
Winter 2023 LTBP NEWS PAGE 2

Bridge Deck Preservation Tool (BDPT)

Transportation Pooled Fund Project, TPF-5(474),

(3)

 focuses 

on developing a functioning bridge deck preservation portal 

to aid bridge owners and bridge engineers in data-driven 

decisionmaking on bridge deck preservation treatments to 

optimize efficacy and life-cycle cost. Project partners include 

Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) (Lead), Indiana 

DOT, Minnesota DOT, Missouri DOT, New Mexico DOT, 

Texas DOT, and FHWA.

Phase Ӏ of the BDPT development project provided a 

systematic approach for predicting changes to bridge deck 

service life by combining physical characteristics, condition 

assessments, and user preferences and constraints with the 

application of specific bridge deck maintenance actions. 

Phase II aims to develop a fully functioning cloud-based 

Web tool hosted on InfoBridge that improves the 

engineering-based functionality outlined in Phase Ӏ. 

The BDPT tool will incorporate the data and condition 

forecasting models in InfoBridge and relevant information 

from recently completed research projects. The BDPT tool 

will standardize the bridge deck maintenance process by 

assisting engineers with the logical selection of maintenance 

actions, thereby developing an optimized maintenance plan 

for a subject deck in user-defined service life.

INFOBRIDGE WEBINARS

LTBP staff provides on-demand, online webinars 

about InfoBridge.

(1)

 InfoBridge users include bridge 

owners, researchers, consultants, and students. To 

date, several webinars have been presented to DOTs, 

researchers, university students, and professors. 

The webinar can be tailored to meet your needs. If 

you want to arrange a webinar for your colleagues, 

please contact shri.bhide@dot.gov. 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

1. Corrosion-Induced Durability Issues and Maintenance 

Strategies for Post-Tensioned Concrete Bridges.

Report No. FHWA-HRT-22-090. Washington, DC: 

Federal Highway Administration. This report presents 

the research findings of a 3-yr synthesis study on 

four topics about corrosion-induced durability issues 

in grouted post-tensioned tendons and maintenance 

strategies to address these issues.

2. Corrosivity of Water-Soluble Sulfate Ions in 

Simulated Pore Water Solutions and Different Types 

of Grout Samples. Report No. FHWA-HRT-21-052. 

Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration. 

This report presents research findings of an accelerated 

corrosion test program to determine the corrosivity of 

water-soluble sulfate ions in the simulated grout pore 

water and how these ions are present in various types 

of grout samples.

REFERENCES

1. FHWA. n.d. “LTBP InfoBridgeTM”(web page). 

https://infobridge.fhwa.dot.gov/Home, last accessed 

November 29, 2023.

2. FHWA. n.d. “LTPP InfoPaveTM”(web page). 

https://infopave.fhwa.dot.gov/, last accessed 

November 29, 2023. 

3. National Cooperative Highway Research Program. 

2023. “Transportation Pooled Fund—Study Details” 

(web page). https://www.pooledfund.org/Details/

Study/701, last accessed November 29, 2023. 

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Key Word— Infrastructure, bridges, research, nondestructive evaluation, TRB, UHPC, InfoBridge.

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FHWA-HRT-24-039

HRDI-30/12-23(WEB)E

Recommended citation: Federal Highway Administration, 

LTBP Newsletter Winter 2023 (Washington, DC: 2023) 

https://doi.org/10.21949/1521473