A variety of repair and strengthening work is carried out to ensure safety of the expressway structures. The service life of structures is maintained and extended by not only repairing the damaged structures, but also by adopting the preventive repairing methods.
Seismic Strengthening
Prevention of bridge falling by connecting bridges to each other with tendons or connecting with abutments or piers. Moreover, the bridge bearings are replaced by new-type rubber bearings that limit the movement.Concrete bridge piers have been reinforced by wrapping steel sheets and steel girders have been reinforced by attaching stiffening members inside to enhance the seismic capacity.
Measures against fatigue of steel structures
For steel structures, especially for damage due to fatigue of corners of bridge piers, reinforcement of the piers is carried out with steel plates.
Reinforcement of Concrete Slab
Concrete slabs are reinforced by attaching carbon fibers or aramid fiber sheets in order to cope with the recent increase in traffic volume.
SFRC pavement (steel fiber concrete pavement)
Adopting composite pavement (SFRC and asphalt) reduces the stress due to the load of the vehicle and improves the fatigue capacity of the steel sheet deck.
