HS25 design load for the bridge deck. Panels are fabricated using Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding to produce a lightweight celular core panels.

The construction included six composite bridge deck panels, with composite curbs and shims, measuring 140' span by 25’ width. Also included in the project was the construction of replacement pedestrian walkways with composite walkway panels. The lightweight deck and walkway replacement enabled New York State Department of Transportation to double the bridge's load ratings while allowing vehicle weight restrictions to be removed. Most important, it avoided a costly bridge replacement project by rehabilitating a steel truss bridge using lightweight composites. Reducing dead load on the bridge by 265 tons, the application of this technology doubled the load ratings to a level higher than the original design and allowed weight restrictions to be removed, while saving $1.4 million in the process. It demonstrates the tremendous savings in time, money and weight to be gained from the use of large composite structures. The total cost of the project was just $800,000, versus a projected $2.2 million for replacing the bridge. As a result of reducing the dead load on the bridge to 32 pounds per square foot from 170 pounds per square foot, contractor was able to raise the load rating on the bridge to a much higher level than the original design and save the original superstructure. And the installation - completed in September, 1999 - was responsible for only one month of downtime for the bridge, instead of several.

The Benefits

1. Allow vehicle weight restrictions to be removed
2. Eliminate the need for a costly and time-consuming bridge replacement project along a heavily trafficked road. 
3. Reduce the deck dead load on the structure by 265 tons.
4. Prolong the life of steel truss bridges.

Status
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE - August 24th, 2000 - Hardcore Composites has been named by the Civil Engineering Research Foundation in this year's Charles Pankow Award, the Foundation's highest award for innovation, for the rehabilitation of an aging steel truss bridge in Wellsburg, New York, using fiber-reinforced composites. Hardcore Composites manufactured the key component in the project - a lightweight but super-strong all-composite deck. Over the past four years, Hardcore Composites has manufactured and installed twenty traffic-bearing bridges or bridge decks.

Barriers
The major barriers facing the application of composite materials in construction are:

1. Limited information on Life cycle costs
2. Limited information on Life cycle performance
3. Limited information on benefits/cost analysis of replacing conventional materials with composites
4. For this particular technology (HCI panels) sometimes a vertical uplift between the panels is noticed. This could be because the thin splice plates that are used to join the two adjacent panels did not provide adequate stiffness to prevent this movement. This problem can be rectified by clamping down the decks. However, the preparation and assembly of the tongue pieces as well as the extra efforts of clamping down the decks could be difficult and time consuming.

Points of Contact

1. Mark Ewen, Business Director. 618 Lambsons Lane New Castle, DE 19720. Tel: (302) 442-5900

References

1. http://www.new-technologies.org/ECT
2. Hardcore Composite Press Release
3. http://www.hardcorecomposites.com/bentleys.htm
4. http://www.hardcorecomposites.com/pr_pankow00.htm