Bridge Rehabilitation

Book excerpt: In the last two decades, the rapid deterioration of bridge structures has become a serious technical and economical problem in many countries, including highly developed ones. Therefore, bridge rehabilitation has also become a very essential factor (sometimes even a decisive one) in contemporary bridge engineering. The book covers in synthetic form nearly all the most important problems concerning bridge rehabilitation, such as bridge superstructure and substructure, the typical damage observed in bridges as well as the assessment and evaluation techniques of their technical condition. The book is intended mainly for postgraduate university students. Therefore, all the problems are mostly presented in their physical, chemical and technical as well as economical aspects. The relevant requirements are treated as objective ones, i.e. irrespective of the rules, standards, regulations or guidelines particular to any country. This approach to the subject gives the book a more general character and therefore makes it a useful text for most civil engineering courses./a