ABSTRACT
Bridge construction in severe environmental area is an important developing trend in new century in China, like marine area, high plain or high altitude area, geological disaster area and so on. More than ten bridges with the span of over 1000 m were successfully constructed. In China, large-scale bridge construction has been carried out under the guidance of the national overall development strategy in 21st century. In recent years, China’s government has transfer the developing trend from southeastern part to northwest areas, traffic infrastructure is the key factor for economic takeoff. Studies of construction and service management techniques are still not mature enough (Ge 2011).
Long lasting high performance steel bridge concept is proposed in this paper, which is characterized by better structure performance, long service life and excellent durability, as well as accelerated construction technique and good adaptability to severe environmental exposure. Research progress and engineering application of long lasting high performance steel bridges were introduced in terms of material level, component level and structural level. Advanced materials were studied, including high strength steel, high performance steel (HPS), weathering steel as well as ultra-high performance fiber reinforced composite (UHPFRC) (Wang 2012). Innovative components, like high performance steel girder, tubular flange composite girder and UHPFRC-steel deck system, were tested in laboratory to study the mechanical behaviors (Wang 2013, Duan 2014). In construction aspect, accelerated construction technique and maximum prefabrication were studied to adapt to severe environmental conditions like frozen earth areas. In service stage, intelligent bridge monitoring and management system were suggested to long lasting high performance steel bridge system. Based on the experimental study results, a long lasting high performance steel bridge, i. e., high performance steel tubular flange composite girder bridge, was designed and constructed. Hybrid design ideas and fast fabrication were taken into design consideration, while high performance weathering steel and innovative tubular flange composite girder were adopted.
