Updated Research for Collision Damage and Repair of Prestessed Concrete Beams

Overview

Collision between over-height vehicles and bridges is an ever increasing problem nationwide. The bridge community is in need of current state of the art means and methods of evaluation and in-place repair of collision damaged precast/prestressed concrete beams. The NCHRP Report 280: Guidelines for Evaluation and repair of Prestressed Concrete Bridge Members, published in December 1985, provided useful information on tests undertaken to repair prestressed beams utilizing various techniques and the calculations for determining the resulting capacities of repaired beams. The report also included the manual of recommended practice containing guidelines for inspection and assessment of damage, selection of repair methods, and repair of damage. It’s important to note that the capacity calculation examples presented in NCHRP Report 280 are based on the AASHTO 1983 edition of “Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges”. In addition, the repair evaluation and testing utilizing fiber composites were not considered in NCHRP Report 280. The objectives of this research are to: (1) develop criteria to evaluate whether to repair or to replace a prestressed concrete girder damaged by a vehicular impact; (2) identify the gaps in the available information and practices related to repair of collision damage of prestressed girders; and (3) recommend practice report guide.