We need information about safe construction procedures, GDOT design guidelines and bidding documents. They are the keys for the success of this technology. Indeed, a future goal of Zureick's research is to generate national guidelines, which could be used in FRP structure repair projects worldwide, he says. Such documentation could be in place within two to three years. The FHWA 1996 Better Roads Bridge Inventory indicates that about 31 percent of the nation's bridges are substandard.
Several factors contribute to the problem.
In fact, the Lee Road bridge repair took workers less than a day to complete what could have taken several weeks to do traditionally, Zureick says. With time and money at stake for highway departments nationwide, Zureick's research team is simultaneously conducting laboratory and field tests on FRP materials. So far, laboratory tests have determined that FRP materials can make bridges 30 to 40 percent stronger than the original design. They are gathering long- term data and plan to estimate the benefits over a bridge's lifespan once all data are analyzed. Additional FRP material laboratory tests conducted in an environmental chamber are addressing every potential aspect of bridge component behavior during the structure's lifespan, expected to be 75 years under current design criteria.