Title: Durable Concrete Construction– Performance Monitoring Of Patterson River Bridge

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Publication: CIA

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Date: 2/13/2011

Abstract:
The Patterson River Bridge carries Nepean Highway over Patterson River in Carrum, and was constructed in 1995 as part of a multi-level protection approach incorporating high quality concrete with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), application of protective coatings, many other durability provisions and testing for volume of permeable voids/permeability (VPV). The bridge consists of 4 spans and 3 piers each with two columns. Determination of the chloride penetration profile, in-situ strength and volume of permeable voids (VPV), in the nominated concrete was also undertaken. Additional testing on Pier 3 included half-cell potential and resistivity measurements, chloride, carbonation and compressive strengthbtesting and cover metre survey. Half-cell potential and corrosion rate measurements are in agreement with the embedded probe output, both indicating no corrosion activity at the present time, some 8 years after construction. The chloride penetration has been small and limited to the outer 0-15 mm of concrete surface, such that a chloride profile is not available as yet for the calculation of the Cl- diffusion coefficient. The VPV was about 10.5% indicating very high concrete quality. It is suggested that the high quality of concrete together with the surface coatings applied to the concrete soon after construction and the multi-level protection approach to durability has provided very effective protection against corrosion of steel reinforcement.