Have you crossed a bridge today? How many have you crossed this month?
Bridges connect us as a nation. We need them to transport billions of tons in freight each year. We take our vacations by crossing bridges.
We count on bridges to be strong, reliable and low maintenance.
Yet:
- Over a quarter of America’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
- Billions upon billions of dollars are needed to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure—the Federal Highway estimates a 20-year investment of $131.7 billion is needed for bridges and highways.
New steel bridge plate technology offers solutions:
- The structural advantages of using steel include its lighter weight—which means lighter foundations and lower erection costs.
- Cost competitiveness is a huge advantage of high performance steel bridges
- Durability is another key benefit of steel bridges along with lower maintenance--especially for short span, weathering steel bridges.
- Designers and engineers can specify new high-performance steels, developed by member companies of AISI for the Office of Naval Research and the Federal Highway Administration. These steels have superior toughness and can be welded with little or no preheat.
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