Sessions & Events

MINI SESSION: Advances in Concrete Bridge Evaluation

Sunday, October 26, 2025  8:30 AM - 9:30 AM, M - Stadium 3&4

This session will present topics of great relevance for the evaluation of concrete bridges. The first presentation will help the audience become aware of the NBI database and the use of InfoBridge, the FHWA's Bridge Web Portal. The second presentation will inform the audience the performance and assessment of High-Strength Self Consolidation Concrete Bridges when load tested.

Learning Objectives:
(1) Discuss how evaluation of NBI data can inform concrete bridge owners;
(2) Review the tools in InfoBridge and the LTBP Program’s research;
(3) Report on the assessment of bridges built with High-Strength Self Consolidation Concrete;
(4) Evaluate the performance of SCC versus conventional concrete girders’ response when subjected to service loads.

This session has been approved by AIA and ICC for 1 PDH (0.1 CEU). Please note: You must attend the live session for the entire duration to receive credit. On-demand sessions do not qualify for PDH/CEU credit.

Bridge Condition Forecasting in InfoBridge, Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Web Portal

Presented By: Shrinivas Bhide
Affiliation:
Description: InfoBridge provides access to a vast amount of data on more than 620,000 bridges in the United States. The data include National Bridge Inventory data; National Bridge Element data; climate data; bridge data from special FHWA research projects on ultra-high performance concrete, unpainted weathering steel, timber bridges, and geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge systems, bridges with internally cured concrete decks; and data collected by FHWA’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Program. The website is free, no login is required, and it does not track or save personally identifiable information. InfoBridge can be used for various routine and specialized tasks, such as creating a record of bridge inventory, reviewing current and historical bridge condition assessments, performing asset valuation, and forecasting future conditions of bridges. This presentation will look at three tools in InfoBridge, which resulted from the LTBP Program’s research. The tools are asset valuation, bridge performance forecast models, and historical specification changes.

Load Testing and Behavior of High-Strength Self Consolidation Concrete (HS-SCC) Bridges with Live Load Continuity

Presented By: John Myers
Affiliation: Missouri S & T
Description: Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) and High-Strength Self-consolidating concrete (HS-SCC) has emerged as an alternative to build stronger structures with longer service life. Despite the advantages of using SCC and even HS-SCC, there are some concerns related to its service performance. The effect of a smaller coarse aggregate size and larger paste content is of special interest. It is fundamental to monitor the response to service loads of infrastructure employing SCC and HS-SCC in prestressed concrete members. Bridge A7957 was built employing normal-strength and high-strength self-consolidating concrete in its main supporting members. The diagnostic test protocol implemented in this research included static and dynamic tests and the calibration of refined finite element models simulating the static loads acting on the structure during the first series of diagnostic tests. The main objective of this study centered on (a) presenting a diagnostic test protocol using robust and reliable measurement devices (including noncontact laser technology) to record the bridge’s initial service response; and (b) obtaining the initial spans’ performance to evaluate and compare the SCC versus conventional concrete girders’ response when subjected to service loads. The initial response of the end spans (similar geometry and target compressive strength, but with girders fabricated using concrete of different rheology) was compared, and no significant difference was observed.