Keeping in mind the pictures in my post “Canada’s Crumbling Bridge Infrastructure”, any new and inventive engineering idea for structures is most welcome. Particularly when the creator – Habib Dagher, Professor Civil/Structural Engineering from UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center says the bridges are faster and cheaper to build, and last longer than conventional bridges.
The so-called “bridge in a backpack” process features a carbon fiber fabric that’s unfolded, inflated and coated with a resin at the job site. Then it’s filled with concrete. Using concrete-filled carbon fibre forms eliminates the need for steel rebar or structural steel–which are expensive and also degrade.
The composite shell provides a protective barrier that keeps out road salt, chemicals and moisture, which eventually penetrate conventional bridges and cause rust. As Dagher told a local paper: “You know what happens to concrete and rebar with the environment in Maine. Water gets in there and it cracks, it freezes, and breaks up the concrete. Now water can’t get in there. The concrete is completely protected from the environment so bridges can last quite a bit longer.”
Sound like a good idea…..full story and pictures in the Infrastructurist.