(serene music) (logo whooshes)
- [Narrator] The use of precast components
during bridge construction is a technique
that can speed up the construction process
and increase worker safety.
Texas has been prefabricating deck panels, girders
and bent caps for years,
but bridge columns are typically cast in place.
In TxDOT Project 0-7089,
the Texas Department of Transportation
and Researchers with the Center for Transportation Research
developed design recommendations
and standards for precast bridge columns.
- So Texas has been moving towards this idea
of accelerated bridge construction now for a few decades.
And really the last piece of the puzzle
for the main construction of bridges is the column.
- Currently in the State of Texas,
these are cast in place elements
and within the context of this project,
we worked on precast concrete solutions
for the columns in bridge substructures.
The precast concrete shells
to be used in column construction
were built at a precast yard,
shipped over to our laboratory,
and we ended up completing the construction
in a total precast type of setting
and actually tested the structural behavior
of those elements
at Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory.
In understanding the behavior
that we observed in the laboratory,
we needed to construct finite element models
and try to study the behavior of force transfer
from bridge decks all the way to the foundations
in a more comprehensive manner,
and that was also accomplished at Ferguson Lab.
- The key finding of this research
was a large-scale test results
that proves that we can use a precast column
in a real world scenario
using an accelerated bridge construction idea
throughout the project,
and all of that can be precast ahead of time,
allowing shorter construction times
and less impact to our road users.
- We have now precast concrete solutions
for typical bridge columns,
and their strength and their overall deformation behavior
and their projected behavior under anticipated loads
are no inferior to,
and certainly superior than the current standards
that we have.
And with that in place,
implementation of the research fund findings
will likely to produce wonderful results
in terms of reducing construction cost
and certainly improving durability.
- [Narrator] For more information
and to find the publications for this project,
please visit the TxDOT Research Library
at the link shown below.