Composite bridges on a path to wider use

Story excerpt provided by PlasticsNews.

Written by Catherine Kavanaugh.

When the district Department of Transportation (DDOT) in Washington, D.C., needed to replace three aging bridges over the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in Georgetown, plastic crossed the minds of engineers facing a problem. The 110-year-old bridge over 29th Street had to have a thin deck, but be strong enough to carry 4,000 vehicles, including some semi-trucks, over the waterway that opened in 1831 to get coal, lumber and food crops to market.

The solution: Replace the concrete slab and its encased steel I-beams with a five-inch thick, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) deck.

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Originally Published Wednesday, March 26, 2014.