Repairing Steel Girder End Corrosion Using Ultra-High Performance Concrete

This paper presents a case study of using ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) to repair a large steel highway bridge severely damaged by corrosion at the plate girder ends and the steel rocker bearings. In addition to fixing the corrosion issues at the girder ends, the use of UHPC also enabled the jacking of the superstructure to allow rocker bearing repairs. Due to limitations posed by the bridge height and location, the surrounding facilities and constraints, and the high service demand, the conventional cut-and-replacement method to repair the corroded girders’ ends was found difficult to apply. The innovative method of encasing the corroded steel with UHPC and then jacking up the encasements was developed and proved to be an elegant solution to successfully address the aforementioned challenges. After briefly introducing the properties of UHPC, the paper describes the bridge geometry and location, the corrosion damage, and the temporary emergency repair measures. The challenges for the permanent repair using conventional repair methods are discussed, followed by a description of the concept development and the design considerations of the proposed UHPC repair. Design and analysis approaches are discussed and results are presented. Construction that lasted for approximately 6 months is briefly described. The bridge was successfully repaired without major incidents and with minimum disruption to traffic.