Design of concrete bridges for sustainability and durability

Sustainable and durable infrastructure facilities, including bridges, require optimum use of all resources involving reduction of energy and water consumption during all project phases, including planning, design, construction, maintenance, operations, repair and rehabilitation, and finally decommissioning and disposal of the debris at the end of its service life. Design of a sustainable and durable bridge structure requires consideration of a few feasible alternatives to develop an optimum option to fulfill all of the relevant limit states, with the best life-cycle performance and with the lowest life-cycle costs.;The current national standards do not account for the observed increases in operating loads and the increasing deterioration of bridge structures over their service life. While these standards emphasize quality control in choice of materials, design and construction, they do not provide guidance and scientific tools to design and maintain a bridge structure for durability over its service life, and include only prescriptive tools for preventing some deterioration modes.;This research program integrates sustainability and durability in the design of a conventional bridge structure in a cold climate country, subjected to the various mechanical natural and man-made loads and an aggressive environment, and considers the performance of the various materials and structural components over the design service life. The latest available models of the relevant deterioration modes have been incorporated in the life-cycle performance and design considerations. The basic procedure adopts a multiple protection strategy for all deterioration modes, resulting from the relevant aggressive actions, and integrates durability considerations with structural calculations for the final design and defines maintenance strategies and any needed supplementary protection techniques. The design-for-durability procedure is illustrated in a worked out bridge design example.