SECTION 1
Introduction
To ensure that the FHWA research and technology program meets the objectives laid out in the FHWA Research and Technology Agenda, formal evaluations of projects and programs are conducted periodically. The primary purpose of these evaluations is to quantify socioeconomic returns to research and technology program activities and to guide future research agendas and technology transfer activities.
RTI International was engaged by TRB to conduct an evaluation of the use of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) for bridge connections in the United States and the work the FHWA Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) has conducted since 2002 to encourage deployment of the technology. UHPC is a cementitious composite material with higher compressive, tensile, and flexural strength and better durability compared with conventional concrete. The UHPC research and development program at TFHRC has conducted research and produced reports, technical briefs, and guidelines for the use of UHPC, leading to its use for multiple bridge applications but predominantly for prefabricated bridge element (PBE) deck-level connections.
The evaluation focused primarily on the impacts of UHPC connections (UHPC-C) compared with conventional concrete connections (CC-C) for deck-level PBEs and had three core objectives:
- Review the process by which TFHRC selected UHPC-C as a research focus, assess the effectiveness of its activities in promoting UHPC-C adoption, and document program accomplishments and UHPC-C deployment milestones.
- Assess the technical and business cases for using UHPC-C, the barriers to adoption for construction stakeholders, and the potential role for TFHRC in addressing those barriers.
- Quantitatively estimate the benefits and costs of UHPC-C to determine the socioeconomic return from adoption.
This report provides a brief overview of the benefits and applications of UHPC (Section 2), a summary of data collection efforts (Section 3), details of the analyses supporting each of the three core objectives (Sections 4–6), and concluding remarks (Section 7). Additional details about the bridge delivery process are provided in the Appendix.
