Existing Bridges: Widening, Rehabilitation, and Replacement

In Existing Bridges: Widening, Rehabilitation, and Replacement, you'll learn ...

• Benefits and challenges with widenings, rehabilitation, and replacements of existing bridges
• Considerations for bridge widenings and replacements during the design phase
• Bridge rehabilitation and applications to various bridge elements
• Different superstructure types used with bridge widenings

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 2 PDH

Length: 33 pages

Bridges are vital to our everyday lives. They help make our travel smoother by reducing commute time and connecting different cities throughout the country. While bridges help facilitate our transportation needs, they often become outdated, resulting in higher congestion and accident rates.

Each year, more bridges continue to deteriorate; however, the funding available to address these bridges is limited. Finding solutions that are cost-effective and practical while being able to address future traffic demands has become a priority for engineers and transportation agencies.

This course provides an overview of three options to consider with existing bridges: rehabilitation, bridge widenings, and bridge replacements. For each alternative, the course will examine the benefits and possible challenges, providing real-world examples of bridges currently in service. Additional specific topics, such as the sequence of construction, retrofits against natural disasters, and superstructure types, will also be discussed. After completing this course, the student will be able to understand and recognize ways to help improve our bridge infrastructure.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the role of surveys, geotechnical investigations, and load ratings in evaluating existing bridge conditions.
• Describe the interpretation of bridge load rating categories, including inventory, operating, permit, and legal ratings.
• Explain the influence of service life, maintenance of traffic, and construction staging on bridge widening feasibility.
• Describe the sequence of construction activities involved in bridge widening projects.
• Explain the use of retaining wall systems, temporary shoring, and foundation modifications during widening construction.
• Identify the rehabilitation techniques used for bridge joints, bearings, girders, and bridge piers.
• Describe the implementation of seismic retrofit strategies and storm-resilient bridge rehabilitation measures.
• Explain the advantages, limitations, and constructability considerations of accelerated bridge construction methods.
• Identify the use of UHPC, SIBC, SPMTs, and GRS-IBS in modern bridge replacement projects.
• Describe the coordination requirements between structural, geotechnical, survey, and utility engineering disciplines during bridge projects.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.