Laboratory and Field Testing of an Accelerated Bridge Construction Demonstration Bridge: US Highway 6 Bridge over Keg Creek

Project Details
STATUS

Completed

PROJECT NUMBER

11-411, SPR 90-00-RB02-012

START DATE

07/05/11

END DATE

04/08/13

FOCUS AREAS

Infrastructure

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, BEC, CTRE
SPONSORS

Federal Highway Administration State Planning and Research Funding
Iowa Department of Transportation

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Brent Phares

Bridge Research Engineer, BEC

Co-Principal Investigator
Matt Rouse
Co-Principal Investigator
Terry Wipf

About the research

The US Highway 6 Bridge over Keg Creek outside of Council Bluffs, Iowa is a demonstration bridge site chosen to put into practice newly-developed Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) concepts. One of these new concepts is the use of prefabricated high-performance concrete (HPC) bridge elements that are connected, in place, utilizing advanced material closure-pours and quick-to-install connection details.

The Keg Creek Bridge is the first bridge in the US to utilize moment-resisting ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) joints in negative moment regions over piers. Through laboratory and live load field testing, performance of these transverse joints as well as global bridge behavior is quantified and examined. The effectiveness of the structural performance of the bridge is evaluated to provide guidance for future designs of similar bridges throughout the US.

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