Abstract
Most of the bridges and viaducts in the Netherlands were built in the sixties and seventies of the last century, and an increasing number of them will have to be replaced due to technical or functional reasons. The Netherlands is not an exception, many industrialized countries will face a similar replacement task in the near future. With the increased traffic intensities and the importance of mobility, the design and construction strategies for new bridges have to be different from that in the past. New methods need to ensure that traffic hindrance due to construction works and (future) maintenance activities are minimized. At the Delft University of Technology, a SMART bridge concept is being developed for fast and hindrance-free infrastructural replacement. The optimal advantage is achieved by utilizing innovative but proven technologies, and by bringing academic research into practice. A combination of recent innovations in construction technology, such as advanced cementitious materials (ACM), structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, advanced design methods (ADM), and accelerated bridge construction (ABC) is being used. These innovations represent a step towards the next generation of infrastructure where fast construction, intelligent bridge design, sustainability, zero-energy, no/low maintenance, and aesthetics are key features.
Highlights
The basic idea of the SMART bridge concept is to replace multi-span viaducts with a supported bridge structure made of ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC), spanning the total length and with minimal changes to foundations and alignments
The conclusion of the case study for replacing the existing concrete plate bridge was that a slenderness of λ = 50 could be achieved by using prefabricated C190 prestressed UHPC bridge girders
For the new generation of bridges, a paradigm shift will need to occur in bridge engineering
Summary
An overview over the period from 1925 to 2004, which shows when bridges were built in the United States (US), Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands, is shown in Figure 1 [2,3,4,5]. This certainly does not mean that these bridges are unsafe, an increasing number will need to be replaced in the future. Traffic hindrance due to construction was not an issue, because these bridges were built in the open field, in the new highways. A report by the TNO [10] shows that Dutch companies lose around 1.1 billion euros annually due to traffic jams These losses are equal to 18% of the Dutch annual infrastructure budget of around 5.9 billion euros. For the generation of road infrastructure, rapid and low hindrance bridge replacement will be a governing task
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