GS Engineering & Construction said on the 14th it has solved the biggest challenge for modular bridges—"joint robustness"—with a new composite material technology.
GS Engineering & Construction successfully completed a public test on the 2nd of the "full-depth precast concrete (PC) deck using glass fiber-reinforced rebar and ultra-high-performance concrete," finishing technical verification.
The core of this technology is integrating the joints that connect module to module. To address corrosion of rebar and cracking at conventional PC deck joints, GS Engineering & Construction devised an innovative method that uses glass fiber-reinforced rebar, which is stronger than steel and does not rust, and places ultra-high-performance concrete in the joints.
Applying this method not only makes transport and construction easier by reducing material weight but also extends a bridge's maintenance life. In public testing, the modular full-depth PC deck withstood an ultimate load about 1.6 times the design load, and it easily passed 2 million cycles in a fatigue test simulating repeated vehicle loads, demonstrating structural reliability.
A GS Engineering & Construction official said, "Compared with conventional cast-in-place methods, we can shorten the construction period by about 50%, and achieve cost savings of more than about 5% compared with other companies' PC methods."