High strength concrete Concrete properties Structural applications Early age strength Concrete bridge Rapid bridge construction a b s t r a c t
The interest in concrete having an early age strength is increased due to the possibility to limit the construction time. A rapid hardening concrete (RHC) can be applied in order to limit the interruption of heavy traffic ways, for the construction of infrastructures such as bridges, viaducts, etc.
In this paper, a practical case of using RHC is presented. The deck of a small span bridge located in an important industrial area with heavy traffic, has been constructed by using a concrete characterized by an early age strength. One day after casting operations, the bridge was immediately opened to public traffic, after the final inspection. Due to the location of the bridge, RHC was successfully used to limit interruptions of heavy bridge traffic, thereby reducing the loss of industrial costs related to the bridge reconstruction project.
The rapid hardening concrete (RHC) was produced with commonly available raw materials and is characterized by the total absence of silica fume or any other addition of pozzolanic materials or accelerating admixture.