01514956

Component

Use of current weathering steel practice has been reviewed through literature search, discussions with various state Department of Transportation (DOT) personnel, and inspection of existing weathering steel bridges in Florida, in support of Florida DOT’s efforts to increase the use of weathering steels. The review suggests that high performance weathering steels can be used in Florida with the following understanding: (1) Site specific tests be conducted to determine chloride and sulfur dioxide deposition rates, and time of wetness to ensure that Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Technical advisory conditions are met. (2) Bridge design should take into account management of water drainage away from the structure to avoid concrete staining and steel corrosion. Here Texas DOT guidelines as well as FHWA Technical Advisory are useful. (3) Bridge maintenance programs should consider removing debris including bird nests and bird droppings from steel surface since they tend to retain moisture, thereby increasing the time of wetness and subsequent corrosion attack. (4) Based on discussions with various DOTs, it is the authors opinion that bridge maintenance crews will need additional training in the proper detection of defects in weathering steel as it is often difficult to visually detect cracks or other problems. Beyond these considerations, the industry (including DOTs and FHWA) needs to understand the corrosion standards used by Great Britain and Japan compared to the United States in terms of acceptable chloride deposition rates for corrosion performance. The Japanese appear to have the toughest standard, probably because they are targeting much longer design lives.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFF20 Steel Bridges.

01503729

14-0334

English

19p

2014

Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Photos; References; Tables

Bridge design; Corrosion; Drainage; Maintenance; Service life; State departments of transportation; Weathering steel

U.S. Federal Highway Administration

Florida; Japan; United Kingdom

Bridges and other structures; Highways; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014 Paper #14-0334

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:12PM