Advanced composites for cost-effective rehabilitation of bridges

Advanced composites have received considerable attention from bridge owners for the last few years, as cost-effective, durable alternatives to such conventional structural materials as steel and concrete. Last year, New York started taking advantage of these materials for cost-effective bridge rehabilitation. Three projects have now been completed, with bridge structures instrumented for long-term monitoring to study the performance and durability of composites for such applications. This paper briefly describes those projects.