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Article: The ongoing evolution of FRP Bridges.
- Article from:
- Public Roads
- Article date:
- September 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Superintendent of Documents. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Refugio County near the southeastern Texas coast has a humid, subtropical climate with an average of 94 centimeters (37 inches) of rain annually. Given the humidity and proximity to the coast, brackish water in streams and drain-age ditches corrodes the county's highway bridges and increases maintenance costs. To address the corrosion issue, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) specified customized, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite beams when it replaced a drainage ditch bridge (FM-1684) in Refugio County in 2007.
Although FRP beams are more costly upfront, TxDOT selected them to research the long-term corrosion and structural performance ...