Field Investigation Of Prestressed Reinforced Concrete Highway Bridges

Work accomplished over the 14.5 year life of this project is summarized, and the reports published as part of the study are referenced. Implementation of the results of the study has already been accomplished in two areas. The current loss-of-prestress provisions in the AASHTO Bridge Specification are based on recommendations prepared as part of the work of this project. Illinois DOT has stopped using span diaphragms in prestressed concrete highway bridges as a result of recommendations based on another phase of the study. The work be divided into three relatively separate phases. The first phase was the installation of deformation measuring instrumentation in three in-service bridges, the gathering of data, and the development of analysis procedures that enabled the data to be interpreted. The second phase involved the construction of relatively small scale prestressed bridge components, and their use to provide data to help confirm some information developed in the field study. The models were later tested to failure, and additional information about overload behavior was gained. The third phase was a study of the effects of span diaphragms on moment distributions in bridges, and it was concluded that these members were cost-ineffective and that their use should be discontinued.