FIELD MONITORING OF CORROSION RESISTANCE IN BRIDGE DECK REINFORCING STEEL

This paper presents a portion of a project that investigated the use of corrosion resistant reinforcing steel in the deck slab of two newly constructed 83.5 m (274 ft) x 12.0 m (39.37 ft) prestressed concrete girder bridges. The decks of the two bridges were constructed with two different types of steel; one with Micro-composite Multi-structural Formable Steel reinforcing steel, and the other with epoxy-coated mild reinforcing steel. During the construction of the bridges, embeddable sensors were installed on selected reinforcing steels in the bridge decks to identify signs of corrosion initiation and severity. Using a conventional voltmeter, data were recorded, by measuring DC voltage and DC current, periodically to assess and compare the performance, in terms of corrosion resistance, of the two different types of reinforcing steel. After approximately three years of monitoring, the field evaluation data indicated that no significant corrosion activity was observed in either bridge deck. Although it may require numerous years of monitoring to make a valid assessment, it is expected that continued monitoring and evaluation would provide evidence of the corrosion resistance in the bridge deck reinforcing steel. https://www.concrete.org/Portals/0/Files/PDF/ACI_f11_Convention_Program_Book.pd