Zaghi says the technique also has the potential to significantly reduce the need for lane closures and cut the cost of repairs dramatically.<\/p>\n
Brad Overturf, a transportation supervising planner with the Connecticut Department of Transportation<\/a> (CTDOT), emphasizes the financial impact of the project.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see the potential benefits in terms of speed, cost, and not having to shut down the bridge for the repair,” Overturf says. “There\u2019s enormous potential for cost saving.\u201d<\/p>\n The process is about to be tested under real world conditions.<\/p>\n The award, called a Sweet 16 Transportation Through Excellence Award<\/a> from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, recognizes 16 innovative transportation projects throughout the country. These ‘High Value Research Projects’ were selected from more than 120 projects submitted by state-level departments of transportation.<\/p>\n Currently, a bridge has to be jacked up to carry out repairs \u2013 the support structure of the bridge can\u2019t hold any weight while it\u2019s worked on. This process can account for up to 70 percent of a repair project\u2019s cost and can close traffic lanes, increasing congestion.<\/p>\n The new technique developed at UConn involves welding shear connectors to the girder, then pouring ultra-high performance concrete directly around the metal, with the studs keeping the concrete in place. Since this can be done without jacking the bridge, this repair method could significantly shorten the time needed to fix support beams.<\/p>\n Many of the bridges throughout the nation were built in the 1950s and 60s, and are reaching the end of their estimated lifespan. The new repair technique could add decades to their useful life. Those aging bridges were often coated in lead paint, and require costly abatement before repair work can begin. The concrete cast simply seals the paint in place and covers it, allowing repairs to proceed with no environmental risk.<\/p>\n Zaghi says the CTDOT has been very supportive of innovative research.<\/p>\n \u201cCTDOT is really one of the most progressive departments of transportation in the nation,” he says. “They\u2019re strongly committed to research and innovation that address the challenges of aging bridge infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultra-high performance concrete, which is used in this repair method, is a new type of concrete that is reinforced with steel fibers and made from high-quality components. Zaghi says that, in addition to the impressive strength of the concrete, it hardens in only 12 hours and resists corrosion from bad weather.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been extensive research into the material \u2013 it\u2019s very weather-resistant and water doesn\u2019t get inside of it, as it does with traditional concrete,” he says. “The concrete will help protect the steel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The state’s bridges will benefit from a new repair method developed at UConn using ultra-high performance concrete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":115516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,1715,2459,2076,1875,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1951],"class_list":["post-115495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-community-impact","category-graduate-students","category-research","category-grad-school","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 19:05:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115495"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115519,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115495\/revisions\/115519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/115516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115495"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=115495"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=115495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/bridge_9_16_02-020-1024x682.jpg\")
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