National Center for Wood Transportation Structures

About the research

The team proposes to design and construct the first bridge in the United States to use a novel concrete mix referred to as ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) in an optimized shape referred to as a Pi girder (i.e., a double tee cross section). Due to the serviceability issues that were identified early on in the conduct of a previous project using UHPC, a modification of the optimized Pi shape will be utilized, but the general cross section shape will be retained. This project will develop and build on experience in Iowa in the design and construction of bridges using advanced materials. To accomplish this, the team proposes to complete the design using only Iowa-based engineers working at various levels (state, local, academia) and, where possible, to use local companies for the construction of the bridge (note: fabrication of the Pi shape girder will likely be done out of state due to specialty formwork issues). The team will also test a reduced-scale beam specimen in the laboratory and test the completed field bridge.