Deterioration Rates of Concrete Bridge Decks in Several Climatic Regions

Abstract

Understanding the process of concrete bridge deck deterioration and evaluating its condition in an accurate and reliable manner could help bridge owners to better plan for allocating the funds for bridge maintenance, rehabilitation, or reconstruction actions. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the factors impacting the bridge condition. The main objective of this paper is to study the impact of environmental factors on the concrete bridge deck deterioration. National bridge condition from over 25 years of data were analyzed to determine the impact of environmental factors on concrete decks. The U.S. map was divided into six different climatic regions that were used as the basis for the environmental impact study. This study has revealed that environmental factors have a significant effect on the deterioration of concrete bridge decks.