Accelerated Bridge Construction

Book excerpt: The traveling public has no patience for prolonged, high cost construction projects. This puts highway construction contractors under intense pressure to minimize traffic disruptions and construction cost. Actively promoted by the Federal Highway Administration, there are hundreds of accelerated bridge construction (ABC) construction programs in the United States, Europe and Japan. Accelerated Bridge Construction: Best Practices and Techniques provides a wide range of construction techniques, processes and technologies designed to maximize bridge construction or reconstruction operations while minimizing project delays and community disruption. - Describes design methods for accelerated bridge substructure construction; reducing foundation construction time and methods by using pile bents - Explains applications to steel bridges, temporary bridges in place of detours using quick erection and demolition - Covers design-build systems' boon to ABC; development of software; use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) - Includes applications to glulam and sawn lumber bridges, precast concrete bridges, precast joints details; use of lightweight aggregate concrete, aluminum and high-performance steel