Durability control through design and health monitoring during construction

Abstract

Durability control through design and health monitoring of a new viaduct (bridge), to achieve an 80-year service life, is discussed. Manufacture of durable concrete is also discussed and deals mainly with the geometry/shape selection of the structural elements and materials selection (especially the adequate cement type and mineral additions to decrease concrete's porosity). Durability health monitoring was performed during the construction stage, based on concrete performance using the saturated electrical resistivity technique, using cores extracted at new fabricated structural elements. Finally, discussion is presented on how quality assurance is obtained based again from cores extracted at the structural elements exposed to the natural environment, before the construction stage ends, to reverse possible defects and take actions in order to correct them.