Simple Procedure for Load Rating Reinforced Concrete Slab Bridges without Plans
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 5
Abstract
In New Mexico, bridges without plans are currently an issue as in other states in the US. Standard techniques cannot be used for load rating due to the lack of design plans that contain necessary information such as material properties and the amount and location of mild steel reinforcement. In this study, state departments of transportation were surveyed regarding their load rating policies and procedures for planless bridges. Many states reported a significant number of bridges without plans, in particular reinforced concrete bridges, and the rating approaches for such bridges vary from state to state. This project was conducted for the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) to develop an effective method to load rate reinforced concrete slab bridges without plans and obtain more representative estimates of load-carrying capacity. In New Mexico, 46 reinforced concrete slab bridges (simple and continuous span) were load rated and evaluated using simple analytical and nondestructive testing techniques. The procedure includes field measurements of the bridge dimensions and geometry, Windsor Probe testing of the concrete strength, scanning of the embedded steel reinforcement, generation of the as-built drawings, and modeling the bridge with a load rating software. The procedure provided the NMDOT with as-built plans as well as more realistic load rating results for their reinforced concrete slab bridges without design plans. The rating results for the 46 New Mexico bridges are presented in this paper and comparisons are made with other state policies to illustrate the differences in the load ratings.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request and upon approval from the New Mexico Department of Transportation:
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Windsor Probe testing data
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Hilti Ferroscan data
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AutoCAD as-builts
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BrR models
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 5 • October 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 22, 2019
Accepted: Feb 18, 2020
Published online: Jun 19, 2020
Published in print: Oct 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Nov 19, 2020
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