Six
innovative
concrete bridges reinforced with FRP bars were recently constructed
in North America. Five bridges,
Wotton, Magog, Cookshire-Eaton, Val-Alain, and
Melbourne Bridges are located in Quebec, Canada, while the sixth one,
Morristown Bridge, is located in Vermont, USA. All the bridges are of
girder-type with main girders made of either steel or prestressed
concrete with
spans ranging from 26.2 to 50.0 m. The deck is a 200 to 230 mm thickness concrete
slab continuous over spans of 2.30 to 3.15 m. Glass and carbon FRP reinforcing
bars as well as conventional steel were used as
reinforcement for the concrete
deck slab. The bridges are well instrumented at critical locations for internal
temperature and strain data collection using fiber optic sensors. Except
Melbourne Bridge, all bridges were tested for service performance using
calibrated truckloads. This paper presents the construction details and field
testing results of the constructed bridges. The construction procedure and
field test results under real service conditions showed very competitive
performance to concrete bridges reinforced with steel.