Changing social needs, upgrading of design standards, increased safety requirements, continual upgrading of service loads, the increase in the volume of traffic and chloride-induced deterioration means that thousands of bridges need repair or reconstruction. Based on recent bridge management statistics, 83 800 reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges in the EU require maintenance, repairs and strengthening with an annual budget of £215M, excluding traffic delay and management costs. This problem is not confined only to the EU. Based on US Government statistics, of the total number of bridges in the USA over 250 000 are in need of improvement. Governments across the wdrld are looking for new technologies and cost-effective solutions.
J.S. Lane, M.B. Leeming and P.S. Fahole-Luke
One of the methods