High Strength Concrete in Bridge Construction PDF

CCIP002
A cement and concrete industry publication
High Strength Concrete in Bridge Construction
High Strength Concrete in

Bridge Construction
A state-of-the-art report
Technical Guide No. 6
Concrete Bridge Development Group
CONCRETE BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
Acknowledgements
This report was commissioned by the Concrete Bridge Development Group, supported by
The Concrete Centre. It was researched and authored by Nadia Waleed of BRE.
The contributions of the following are fully acknowledged.
Dr T D Gerard Canisius (BRE) for his time and effort, for providing guidance in
structuring the report, and for imparting useful technical input and suggestions for
improving the report.
Dr Stuart Matthews (BRE) for taking the time to thoroughly review the report and
provide helpful suggestions and technical contributions.
Mr Ian Holton, Dr Keith Quillin and Dr Philip Nixon (BRE) for providing valuable
information.
Mr Shri Bhide, Chairman National Concrete Bridge Council, PCA, USA
Mr Jerry L Potter at Ofce of Bridge Technology, FHWA, USA
Dr Hans Rudolf Ganz at VSL International Ltd.
Mr Gordon Bell and Mr Stephen Cardwell at VSL Systems (UK) Ltd.
Mr Mouloud Behloul at Bouygues Travaux Publics, France
Mr Neil Loudon at Highways Agency, UK
Mr Gordon Clark at Gifford and Partners Ltd., UK
Mr Chris Clear at British Cement Association, UK
Mr Richard Cooke at Ove Arup & Partners, UK
Mr Colin McKenna at Scott Wilson, UK
Mr David Simons at Edmund Nuttall Ltd., UK
Members of the CBDG Technical Committee
Published for and on behalf of the Concrete Bridge Development Group by
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First published 2005
Concrete Bridge Development Group 2005
ISBN 1 904482 155
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High Strength Concrete in

Bridge Construction
Contents
Executive summary
1. Introduction
3
4
1.1 Denition of high strength concrete

1.2 Denition of very high strength concrete
4
5
1.3 Ultra high strength concrete

1.4 Advantages of HSC in bridge construction
2. Constituents and mix design for HSC
5
6
7
2.1 Cementitious materials

2.2 Aggregates
2.3 Additions
2.4 Admixtures
2.5 Mix design for HSC
3. Production, curing and quality control for HSC
3.1 Considerations for production and placing
3.2 Curing
3.3 Quality control
4. Test methods/requirements for HSC
4.1 Consistence tests
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
Conformity and identity testing

Compressive strength test
In-situ tests
Concrete core test
4.6 Concreteconcrete bond test

4.7 Reinforcementconcrete bond test
4.8 Abrasion resistance test
4.9 Permeability tests
5. Challenges in the use of HSC
5.1 Challenges related to design
5.2 Challenges related to construction
5.3 Research needs for HSC
7
8
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10
11
12
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14
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Contents
6. HSC in bridges case studies

6.1 United Kingdom
6.2 United States of America
6.3 Canada
6.4 France
30
31
6.5 Norway
6.6 Japan
6.7 Denmark
32
35
37
6.8
6.9
6.10
6.11
38
39
39
40
Germany
Spain
South Korea
List of further HSC bridges
7. Conclusions
8. References
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41
42
Executive summary
Executive summary
Over the last decade there has been a phenomenal increase in the use of high strength
concrete (HSC) in bridge construction in countries such as the USA, Norway, Canada,
and France.
This is a state-of-the-art report that provides an overview of the issues related to the use
of high strength concrete, including the denitions used for HSC, the constituent
materials for HSC, the production and placement practices for HSC and the test
methods used for HSC. The scope of this report is to highlight the salient points, with
further information being available from the cited references, amongst which the
state-of-the-art reviews by Zia et al. provide extensive and all-encompassing
information.
From the literature survey and information gathered from the industry, one example of
the use of HSC in the UK has been found where concrete with a characteristic (cube)
compressive strength of 70 N/mm2 was used. Furthermore, details of a number of HSC
bridges in the USA, Canada, France, Norway, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Spain and South
Korea have been produced. A further list of HSC bridges built around the world has been
compiled along with the references for obtaining more information about these bridges.
As this is a concise report produced under budgetary and consequently time constraints
some papers referred to here could not be sourced directly and it was necessary to rely
on information contained within other documents.
The case studies present selected information about the HSC employed. It may be
necessary to refer to the original (cited) sources in the literature to obtain more detailed
information such as the detailed HSC specications and benets arising from the use of
HSC. Furthermore, in this report the concrete compressive strengths are identied as
cylinder or cube strengths, characteristic or target mean strengths only where the
information was available from the consulted references; where the details were not
available the strength has been referred to only as compressive strength.
The advantages of using HSC in bridge construction are manifold, such as the use of
smaller or fewer structural components, the possibility of achieving longer spans,
increase in the load-carrying capacity without an increase in the bridge member sizes,
lower maintenance costs, longer service lives and increase in the speed of construction.
1 Introduction
1. Introduction
In recent years, the trend in the construction industry has been to develop special
concretes to satisfy requirements that could not be met by the use of traditional concrete.
These concretes are called high performance concretes, where the high performance may
be in attaining high durability characteristics, high early strength or high long-term
strength. Thus, a high strength concrete (HSC) is always a high performance concrete
(HPC), whereas a high performance concrete need not be a high strength concrete.
The development of high strength concrete has been gradual and has occurred over a
period of many years. The denition of HSC has also changed within this time, with the
advances in technology and materials for its production. Concrete with a compressive
strength of 35 N/mm2 was considered as high strength concrete in the 1950s, whereas
concretes with compressive strengths of 4050 N/mm2 were being used as high strength
concretes in the 1960s. The compressive strengths of 60 N/mm2 were achievable in the
early 1970s. Currently concretes with compressive strengths of 7080 N/mm2 are
routinely used in the construction of bridges. Furthermore, ultra high strength concretes
(UHSC) with 28-day strength up to 200 N/mm2 have been developed. UHSC incorporates
steel bres and a very dense cementitious paste to achieve this high strength.
1.1 Denition of high

strength concrete
* The International Federation for Structural Concrete (b
fdration internationale du bton) was created in 1998
by the merger of FIP (Fdration Internationale de
la Prcontrainte) and CEB (Comit Euro-International
du Bton)
There are several denitions used to describe high strength concrete, depending on the
construction industrys requirements and limitations in various countries where HSC is
being utilised. Some of the important denitions are given below.
A joint FIP-CEB* working group dened high-strength concretes in 1990 as being
[FIP-CEB 1990]:
Concretes with a cylinder compressive strength above the present existing limits in
national codes, i.e. about 60 N/mm2 (8,700 psi), and up to 130 N/mm2 (18,800 psi),
the practical upper limit for concretes with ordinary aggregates.
de Larrard and Bostvironnois [Roper, 1991] dened HSC as follows:
High strength concrete is concrete containing chemical admixtures, mainly for water
reduction, and having a compressive strength between 50 N/mm2 and 80 N/mm2
(7,250 psi and 11,600 psi).
In the European standard EN 2061:2000, high strength concrete is dened as:
Concrete with a compressive strength class higher than C50/60 in the cases of
normal-weight or heavy-weight concrete and LC50/55 in the case of light-weight
concrete.
Introduction 1
In the above denition C50/60 is concrete with minimum characteristic cylinder

strength of 50 N/mm2 and minimum characteristic cube strength of 60 N/mm2. Similarly,
LC50/55 is concrete with minimum characteristic cylinder strength of 50 N/mm2 and
minimum characteristic cube strength of 55 N/mm2.
In the United States, ACI Committee 363 has dened high-strength concrete as [ACI
363R-92 (97)]:
Concretes that have specied compressive strengths for design of 41 MPa (6,000 psi)
or greater and excluding concrete made using exotic materials or techniques. The
word exotic refers to materials such as polymer-impregnated concrete, epoxy
concrete and concrete with articial (manufactured) normal and heavyweight
aggregates.
The ACI denition does not specify a maximum compressive strength and is open-ended.
1.2 Denition of very high

strength concrete
As with high strength concrete, very high strength concrete is dened differently by
different researchers.
The following denition of very high strength concrete has been provided by de Larrard
and Bostvironnois [1991]:
Very high-strength concrete (VHSC) is dened as concrete containing, in addition to
the chemical admixtures found in HSC, a nely graded pozzolanic material, such as
silica fume, and having a compressive strength in excess of 80 N/mm2 (11,600 psi).
VHSC is dened by Zia et al. [1991] as concrete with a compressive strength of at least
69 N/mm2 (10,000 psi) at 28 days.
1.3 Ultra high strength

concrete
The ultra high strength concrete (UHSC) is denser than regular concrete with very high
tensile and exural strength. Due to the high density of UHSC, it is nearly impermeable
to degradation by abrasion and chemicals. UHSCs are usually self-levelling brereinforced concretes. For structural applications of UHSC, steel bres are utilised in the
mix, whereas organic bres are used for architectural applications such as faade panels.
The compressive strength range for UHSC is from 150 N/mm2 to 230 N/mm2. BSI and
Ductal are the two leading UHSC manufacturers in France [Behloul and Lee, 2002]
1 Introduction
1.4 Advantages of HSC in

bridge construction
A number of design studies by Adelman and Cousins [1990], Schemmel and Zia [1990],
Taerwe [1991] and Russell [1994] have shown the following advantages of using high
strength concrete in bridges:
They can be constructed with smaller or fewer structural components.
Longer spans can be achieved.
HSC makes it possible to increase the load-carrying capacity without increasing
member sizes in the bridge substructure and superstructure.

HSC helps increase the durability of bridge members. This is specically true for high
performance concrete, where concrete mixes can be produced to meet specic

durability requirements such as low permeability for bridges exposed to a marine
environment.
Lower maintenance costs and longer service lives are achieved.
The speed of construction can be increased with the use of high early strength
concrete and more workable concrete (however, there may be an increased risk of
early age thermal cracking).
Constituents and mix design for HSC 2
2. Constituents and mix design for HSC

Appropriate selection of the concrete constituents is an important factor in obtaining
high strength concrete that attains the required properties with respect to strength and
durability. In addition to the usual constituents for concrete, i.e. cement, water and
aggregates, high strength concretes also incorporate additions and chemical admixtures
to achieve the specied strength properties with an acceptable level of durability.
The high strength concretes usually have a higher cement content with a lower
water/cementitious material ratio. Furthermore, generally the aggregates used in HSC
are stronger than those used for normal strength concrete (NSC) when target mean
strength required is higher than 70 N/mm2.
2.1 Cementitious materials
High strength concrete can be made using Portland cement (CEM I) provided no special
properties from the cement are required. Other types of cements may be used to
achieve high early strength, rapid set and resistance against sulfate attack etc. Brief
details of some of the cements that can be used for producing HSC are given below:
High early strength cements: High early strength cements are used to achieve much
higher strength than that provided by Portland cement at early ages of 1, 3 and 7 days.
With the use of these cements concrete compressive strengths of 2048 N/mm2 can
be achieved within a period of 24 hours. There is generally little difference in the
28-day strength of concretes made with Portland cement and high early strength
cement. The high early strength cements are used for situations such as early load
application, early formwork removal etc.
Low heat cements: In order to reduce the heat of hydration for large concrete
placements or for construction in hot weather, low heat cements may be utilised in
the concrete.
Sulfate-resisting cements: Sulfate-resisting cements can be used for concrete
placement in environments where exposure to sulfate is a problem.
Low alkali cements: The low alkali cements may be used as one means of controlling
the potential risk of alkali-silica reaction.
Shrinkage compensating cements: Use of shrinkage compensating cements has been
studied with respect to use in the construction of jointless slabs, including bridge
decks. The concretes constituting these cements have good strength characteristics
and exceptional sulfate durability; however, there are serious concerns regarding the
durability of the concrete when exposed to de-icing salts. Where the bridge members
produced with shrinkage compensating cements have been sealed, the performance
has been good [Zia et al. 1997].
Blended cements: See section 2.3 for the properties of concrete containing blended
cements.
2 Constituents and mix design for HSC
2.2 Aggregates
The aggregates used in a high strength concrete should be strong and durable. For high
strength concretes, the maximum size of the coarse aggregate used is usually smaller
than that for normal strength concretes (NSC). The surface texture and mineralogy of
the coarse aggregate affects the bond between the aggregate particles and the
cementitious paste, and also the stress levels at which microcracking begins.
The ne aggregate used in HSC can be coarser than that used for NSC because of the
high nes content of the HSC mix.
2.3 Additions
Pulverized fuel ash

(y ash)
Additions excepting pigments, dened in EN 206-1: 2000, are either the products of
natural rock deposits or are obtained as by-products in production of other materials
such as iron, silicon and ferrosilicon alloys etc. These are used extensively in the
production of HSC to achieve the strength and durability characteristics. Four types of
addition are described below.
The pulverised fuel ash (pfa), also called y ash, as used in concrete, is the residue
resulting from the combustion of ground or powdered coal in coal-red power stations.
This by-product is used extensively in the production of high strength concrete. pfa
consists of siliceous and aluminous ingredients and possesses modest cementitious
properties.
Advantages of using pfa

pfa improves the resistance to chloride penetration of concrete compared to a
concrete without pfa having equal strength.

pfa increases the consistence of concrete by virtue of the increase in the overall
cementitious paste volume.

With the use of pfa the early age (37 day) strength gain may be lower, but strength
gain takes place at later ages as the pozzolanic activity of the pfa in the concrete
continues. The ultimate compressive strength of concretes with pfa is greater than
concretes without pfa.
Many investigations have demonstrated that concretes with pfa generally exhibit
lower long-term creep strains because of the higher rate of late-age strength gain.
The use of pfa in concrete generally reduces the degree of alkalisilica reaction. This is
facilitated by the neutralisation of alkali hydroxides in the cement paste by the
siliceous glass in the pfa.
As the pozzolanic reaction of pfa is slower than the hydration of Portland cement, it is
also used to control the amount of early heat generation and the consequential
detrimental effects which may be experienced in massive concrete structures (e.g.
early age thermal cracking, delayed ettringite formation).
Ground granulated
blastfurnace slag
The ground granulated blastfurnace slag (ggbs) is a by-product of the iron production
process. It consists of silicates and aluminosilicates of calcium and other bases. The slag
is ground to a neness equal to that of the cement.
Advantages of using ggbs

Use of ggbs improves resistance to chloride penetration of concrete compared to a
concrete without ggbs having equal strength and water/cementitious material ratio.
The use of ggbs reduces the permeability of the mature (hardened) concrete.
Silica fume
Silica fume (sf), also called condensed silica fume or microsilica, is used most widely as
an addition to concrete to produce high-performance concrete. Silica fume is a nely
powdered amorphous silica that is highly pozzolanic and is produced as a by-product in
the production of silicon and ferrosilicon alloys from electric arc furnaces. Silica fume
consists of extremely ne particles (0.10.12 m) and contains large amounts of silicon
dioxide. The silica fume particles are almost two orders of magnitude smaller than
cement particles. The small size of sf particles is benecial for concrete as these can then
ll the voids between the larger cement particles, resulting in a dense cement paste
[Nawy, 2000].
Silica fume can be obtained in the dense form, loose bulk form, slurry form, and in the
blended silica fume Portland cement form. The usual proportions of silica fume in
concrete mix range from 6% to 10% by mass of cement.
Advantages of using silica fume

Silica fume is used to reduce the water/cementitious material ratio and increase the
compressive, tensile and exural strengths by reducing the voidage (water demand).
The permeability of the silica fume concrete is reduced, improving the durability of the
concrete.
Further performance improvements from inclusion of silica fume replacement include
higher resistances to sulfate attack, alkali-silica reaction, as well as freezing and
thawing [Hooton, 1993].
Requirements for the use of silica fume

The use of silica fume in concrete increases the water demand; hence the use of a
superplasticiser is necessary to maintain consistence without increased water/cement

ratio.
Silica fume concretes should be moist cured in order for them to optimally gain
compressive strength and to avoid plastic shrinkage cracking and crazing.
2 Constituents and mix design for HSC
High reactivity metakaolin
High reactivity metakaolin is a reactive aluminosilicate pozzolan. Under well-controlled

conditions replacement of part of the cement by high reactivity metakaolin has
produced concrete with a compressive strength of 110 N/mm2 [Nawy, 2000].
Advantages of using high reactivity metakaolin

Concrete produced with 620% addition by mass of metakaolin give high early age
and long-term compressive strengths.

The use of metakaolin reduces the permeability of the concrete.
Tests have shown that resistance to freezethaw deterioration is increased by using
510% by mass of metakaolin in the concrete [Caldarone et al. 1994].
Use of metakaolin enhances the resistance to chloride penetration [Ding and Li, 2002].
Metakaolin is effective in mitigating the expansion arising from alkali-silica reaction
[Gruber et al. 2001].
Requirements for the use of high reactivity metakaolin

When metakaolin is to be used in concrete, the addition of superplasticisers, entrained
air, and/or pfa is recommended to help increase the consistence without increasing
the water content.
2.4 Admixtures
Admixtures are produced by chemical processes and they full a number of different
functions to modify the fresh and hardened concrete.
Superplasticisers
(high-range water-reducing
admixtures)
Superplasticisers are used to facilitate the production of very low water/cement ratio
(below 0.40) concretes yet retain good consistence. They are used to achieve the
following benets:
Increase in consistence for a given water/cementitious material ratio (and strength).
Reduction in water/cement ratio to increase concrete strength and durability.
Reduction of both water and cement content to reduce creep, shrinkage and thermal
strains.
Retarding admixtures
Retarding admixtures decrease the rate at which the concrete sets and increase the
duration over which the concrete is workable. They are usually required when:
Concrete has to be placed in hot weather, to decrease the early stiffening and improve
workability retention.
Concrete has to be placed under difcult circumstances, such as in large pours, to
prevent differential setting of concrete.

Concrete has to be pumped/conveyed over long distances.
10
Accelerating admixtures
Accelerating admixtures increase the rate at which concrete sets. They are usually
required when:
Concrete has to be placed in cold weather.
A high early strength or a faster setting time is required.
2.5 Mix design for HSC
The desired performance requirements from a high strength concrete can be achieved
with the use of appropriate raw materials proportioned based on prior experience.
Laboratory and eld trials should be conducted to achieve the optimum mix for the
particular application. It is generally advantageous for the mix design to make as much
use of locally available materials as possible.
Guidance on mix design for high strength concretes for use in the UK is provided in
Concrete Society Technical Report No. 49 [1998].
The ACI Committee 363 report, ACI 363R-92(97) [1998], gives an extensive review of
the concrete mix design considerations for high strength concrete.
In eld trials conducted for High Early Strength (HES), Very Early Strength (VES) and
Very High Strength (VHS) concretes by Zia et al. [1991], the existing proportioning
methods for NSC were found to be valid with only minor modications.
11
3 Production, curing and quality control for HSC
3. Production, curing and quality control

for HSC
The full potential of high strength concrete can only be achieved if thorough attention is
paid to various production and placement requirements. Good quality control and
proper curing are also important factors in obtaining a HSC that satises the desired
strength and durability requirements. The main production considerations, along with
quality control and curing requirements, are discussed below.
3.1 Considerations for

production and placing
Conventional methods for the production of normal strength concretes should be
12
used for high strength concretes, but additional control may be required.
As for NSC the dosage of superplasticisers and other admixtures should be properly
controlled.
If the time to travel to site is variable, procedures to adjust the consistence at site
should be agreed.
The optimum mixing time should be determined to get the best quality product.
The sequence of mixing can affect the workability and compressive strength of very
high strength concretes [Kakizaki et al. 1993]. To avoid problems, the proper mixing
sequence for the addition of admixtures should be adhered to.
The moisture content of the aggregate should be measured regularly to ensure that
the free water content in the concrete is constant.
The chances of getting crazing of the struck surface when impermeable formwork, e.g.
steel- or glass-reinforced plastic is used, are higher when using HSC compared to
when NSC is used. This is due to cohesive nature of HSC. This problem can be
alleviated by the use of ply forms [Concrete Society, 1998] or controlled permeability
formwork.
The maximum temperatures and thermal gradients for thick concrete placements
should be determined using pre-construction trial mix productions. The effect of these
on constructability and long-term design properties should be determined and
addressed in the project specications [ACI 363.2R-98].
Preconstruction trials also help in developing estimates for the loss in consistence and
entrained air during transfer of fresh concrete between the mixer and the location
where the HSC is to be placed [Zia et al. 1997].
As HSC can be rich in cementitious material and may have a low water content, the
potential for plastic shrinkage cracking is high. To avoid this, curing should be
commenced immediately after placing of concrete.
In hot weather conditions the placement of high strength concrete at night helps
minimise rapid drying of the surface by reducing evaporation of water from the
concrete surface.
A pre-construction meeting between all parties concerned with the concrete pour
helps to identify and to ensure a successful placement.
Production, curing and quality control for HSC 3
3.2 Curing
High strength concretes typically have a low water/cement ratio and include one or
more additions such as silica fume and admixtures such as superplasticisers. These
contribute to increased risk of self-desiccation in HSC resulting in termination of
hydration within the concrete if additional moisture is not provided. In order to ensure
that hydration of HSC continues, the water consumed by hydration needs to be replaced
by continuous external moisture input; this external moisture is provided through wet
curing, especially during the rst 7 days after placement of the concrete. For thick
concrete sections the provision of external moisture input through the whole depth of
the section, and consequently complete hydration of the concrete, may not be possible.
In these situations particular care must be exercised. However, in some cases it has been
found that adequate high strength development has been achieved without complete
hydration.
There is general consensus among researchers that for a high strength concrete to
achieve its full potential, wet curing is paramount [ACI 363.2R-98; Zia et al. 1991].
However, there is still no agreement as to what is optimum curing practice for HSC,
where optimum means a balance between the economy of construction and the
development of concrete properties [Meeks and Carino, 1999].
The following gives some observations from the literature on the curing of HSC:
For high strength concrete incorporating silica fume, high early-age curing
temperatures are benecial for early strength development. For example, the ratio of
the 7-day to the 28-day strength increased from 76% to 97% when HSC was cured at
20 C and 50 C, respectively. However, the compressive strength at the age of 100
days was independent of the curing temperatures used [Sabir 1995].
For high strength concrete without silica fume, high early-age curing temperatures of
up to 70 C enhanced the strength development up to an age of about 100 days [Mak
and Torii 1995].
Some evidence has been found by Carino et al. [1992] that the long term strength
development of concretes with low water/cementitious material ratios (0.29 and
0.36) may not be reduced by the use of high curing temperatures as for NSC.
However, more research is needed on this aspect.
Curing methods
The best curing methods for HSC are the ones with water addition, as the effects of selfdesiccation are countered by water curing. Ponding or immersion are the best watercuring methods; however, where these are not practical (e.g. for vertical surfaces), other
methods of water curing such as covering with wet burlap, cotton mats, rugs or other
absorbent materials can be used [ACI 363R-92(97)]. The above mentioned curing
methods have certain limits of applicability, for example, it may not be possible to wet
cure the whole depth of thick sections. Where it is not possible to wet cure most of the
other curing methods for normal strength concrete, such as the use of plastic sheeting
and curing compounds, have been successfully applied for HSC.
13
3 Production, curing and quality control for HSC
A novel way of curing high strength concrete is to replace a portion of the normal weight
aggregate with saturated lightweight aggregate to provide a supply of water within the
concrete. This enhances the curing of the concrete without signicantly reducing
strength [Weber and Reinhardt 1996].
Duration of curing
Research is being conducted internationally to determine new criteria and standards to

establish the required duration of curing for high strength concrete. New criteria are
needed to account for effect on curing duration of HSC of major factors such as
water/cement ratio, cement type and exposure conditions.
Some of the recommendations from research conducted on the topic are as follows:
Holland [1989] recommended that high strength concretes containing silica fume
should be given a minimum of 7 days of wet curing.

Asselanis et al. [1989] concluded that for low water/cementitious ratio concretes with
silica fume, after 7 days of moist curing the concrete is sufciently impervious and any
further moist curing does not improve the properties of the concrete. This observation
is consistent with the recommendation given above by Holland [1989] for a minimum
7-day wet curing period for HSC.
According to Hilsdorf [1995], the following four parameters should be considered
when establishing minimum curing durations:
1. Curing sensitivity of the concrete which is affected mainly by the properties
of cementitious materials and water/cementitious material ratio;
2. Concrete temperature;
3. Expected ambient conditions during and immediately after curing;
4. Anticipated exposure conditions for the structure in service.
In most cases achieving a certain compressive strength is the controlling criteria.
14
3.3 Quality control
HSC generally requires additional quality control procedures compared to NSC. HSC is
more sensitive to small deviations from specied mixing and production procedures and
placement requirements. Thus it is essential that good practices for the production of
HSC be followed. Important considerations for quality control are given below.
Importance of teamwork
For successful mix design and production of HSC the teamwork and partnering between
supplier, contractor and client are crucial elements. Teamworking should be included
as an objective of the contract, with pre-bid, pre-fabrication and pre-construction
meetings. The pre-construction meetings can be benecial in resolving the issues related
to procurement of suitable materials for the concrete, special construction requirements
and curing procedures etc. If a plant is using materials that are not normally stocked,
Production, curing and quality control for HSC 3
time is needed to develop a set of mix designs. The importance of a team approach for
production and delivery of HSC has been emphasised by Howard and Leatham [1989]
and Sanchez and Hester [1990].
Trial batching and trial pours
It has been shown by experience that for developing an optimum HSC, a much larger
number of trial batches is required compared with a normal strength concrete. Trial
batching and trial pours are recommended by various users of HSC to optimise
production and placement issues.
The ACI 363.2R-98 [1998] guide recommends that after the completion of laboratory
mixes, production-sized batches should be made, as there can be differences in the
behaviour of laboratory and production batches. Optimum batching and mixing
sequences can be established using these trial production batches.
Quality control for mixing
The correct mixing sequence is required to prevent balling of silica fume in HSC mixes.
Spalling can take place if silica fume balls accumulate in the concrete. This is usually
encountered during placement of concrete for bridge decks and can be due to either
batching or mixing problems. This issue does not arise when silica fume is used in the
form of a slurry.
The type or source of admixture or any other constituent should only be changed from
the agreed and accepted ones if all the parties involved in the construction accept the
changes. When superplasticisers are being used to increase the uidity of concrete for a
specic time period, the quality control personnel should be aware of the time frame and
whether re-dosing is allowed or not. The addition of water and admixtures at the site
should only be allowed if it has been agreed beforehand and does not result in the
specied water/cement ratio being exceeded [ACI 363.2R-98].
Quality control for curing
Improper and delayed curing of HSC can lead to plastic shrinkage cracking. Hence the
requirements for wet curing (where practical) for the HSC should be strictly adhered to.
The curing needs to be commenced promptly as the detrimental effect of any delay in
the start of curing can be aggravated further if the wind speed picks up, increasing the
evaporation of moisture from concrete.
15
4 Test methods/requirements for HSC
4. Test methods/requirements for HSC

Tests on high strength concrete need to be conducted upon both fresh and hardened
concrete to ensure conformity to the specication. The behaviour and characteristics of
HSC are different from those of NSC. Thus the test methods in use for NSC have to be
re-evaluated to conrm that they give representative and accurate results for HSC. Some
test methods may need to be changed or modied for use with HSC. This chapter
provides an overview of research into the suitability of existing test methods for HSC,
along with the proposed changes for some of the test methods to make them suitable
for HSC.
4.1 Consistence tests
The consistence of high strength concretes can be measured using standard slump test
methods. For HSC a slump of 100 mm generally provides sufcient consistence, although
HSC with higher slump values of 200250 mm have been used. For very stiff HSC mixes,
vebe classes can be used
Guidance on consistence tests for self-compacting concrete (SCC) will be available in
European Guidelines; this will also be applicable to super-workable HSC.
4.2 Conformity and

identity testing
Methods for conformity and identity testing for HSC are the same as for NSC but the
frequency of tests is increased due to the criticality of the material. HSCs generally
incorporate additions and admixtures. Each component plays an important role in
achieving the desired concrete properties. It is therefore essential to check that the
materials are consistent from batch to batch.
Tests can be performed to determine the cement and water content of fresh concrete
but these are specialised and require a laboratory set-up. Further details are provided by
Lawrence [1994].
4.3 Compressive
strength test
As for NSC, the measured strength of HSC is inuenced by the testing conditions
including the age, rate of loading, method of testing and specimen geometry.
The following observations have been gathered from research literature regarding the
effect of testing variables on the compressive strength of HSC. They relate to cylinders as
the research has mostly been carried out on this type of specimen. Cubes typically
produce about 20% higher strength than cylinders.
Smaller concrete specimens (100 200 mm cylinders) generally produce greater
strength than the larger concrete specimens (150 300 mm cylinders) of the same
concrete mix. The difference varies from 2% to 10% for various studies, with 5% being
16
Test methods/requirements for HSC 4
the common value. As the concrete strength increases, this difference becomes
smaller [Baalbaki et al., 1992; French and Mokhtarzadeh, 1993; Aitcin et al., 1994;
Carino et al., 1994].
Specimens tested under a faster nominal stress rate of 0.34 MPa/s showed 2.6%
greater strength than the specimens tested under a slower nominal stress rate of
0.14 MPa/s. The tests were performed for concretes having compressive strengths of
45 and 90 N/mm2 [Carino et al., 1994]. The same trend is applicable for normal
strength concretes.
According to Burg et al. [1999] the important considerations for testing of HSC for
compressive strength, for cyclinder specimens, relate to:
Specimen size: Cylinders made with HSC require higher loads for breaking them, thus
smaller cylinder sizes of 100 200 mm are preferred by many testing agencies (in the
USA) instead of the 150 300 mm cylinders used for NSC. These smaller cylinders
show greater variability in the results, hence Burg et al. [1999] have proposed that
when using smaller cylinders more specimens should be tested to obtain a
representative compressive strength value.
Cylinder end: To obtain representative compressive strength data, it is important to
prepare the cylinder ends properly. Burg et al. [1999] have proposed that for a
specied cylinder compressive strength below 69 N/mm2 conventional methods can
be used. However, for strengths greater than this, comparative testing should be done
for cylinders with capping compounds or with surface-ground ends. In the absence of
a comparative study, it is recommended that the cylinders with surface-ground ends
should be used for HSC for specied cylinder compressive strength above 69 N/mm2.
4.4 In-situ tests
The break-off test is used to evaluate the strength development of in-situ concrete. The
force required to break-off an in-situ concrete cylinder (55 mm dia 70 mm long) is
related to the compressive strength of the concrete mix. The suitability of the break-off
test for use with high strength concrete was studied by Di Maio et al. [1996]. The effects
of different variables such as age, type of coarse aggregate and strength level were
considered. They calculated regression equations between break-off pressure and
compressive strength and concluded that the break-off test can be used satisfactorily to
assess the strength development for concretes with a compressive strength up to
100 N/mm2.
The suitability of various non-destructive test (NDT) methods for determining the
compressive strength of HSC was researched by Pascale et al. [2000]. They used different
mixes with compressive strength varying from 30 up to 150 N/mm2. The NDT tests were
performed on cubic (150-mm and 200-mm cubes) and beam specimens
(600 200 200-mm and 400 200 200-mm beams). They derived correlation laws
between the non-destructive test parameters and compressive strength of HSC for
different methods such as pulse velocity, rebound hammer, surface hardness, pull-out,
probe penetration, microcoring and the combined reboundpulse velocity method. These
correlation laws were compared with the ones generally employed for normal strength
concrete; it was found that the exponents in the correlation laws for HSC were generally
17
4 Test methods/requirements for HSC
higher. This is attributed to the fact that the sensitivity of non-destructive parameters to
strength variations reduces when the strength is very high. Some salient conclusions
from their research are given below.
The results showed good correlations between the non-destructive test parameters
and compressive strength for pulse velocity, surface hardness, rebound hammer and
combined reboundpulse velocity methods.
Good performance was observed for the pull-out method over the entire strength
range. However, for some tests, anomalous cracking was observed around the testing
area making it necessary to discard those results.
It was found that the working range of the probe penetration method was limited to
strength values of up to 80 N/mm2 due to available commercial testing systems being
inadequate for high strength concrete.
The effectiveness of microcores was found to be sensitive to specimen preparation.
4.5 Concrete core test
It is advisable to establish correlation curves for HSC to relate the strength of extracted
cores (measured according to EN 12504-1: 2000) to the strength of cube/cylinder
specimen. This would be useful if coring is carried out at a later stage. In the absence of
correlation data, provisions such as those provided by ACI 318-99 [1999] can be used.
The ACI Building Code ACI 31899 [1999] criteria for NSC states that concrete
represented by core tests is considered adequate when the average compressive strength
of a set of three cores is equal to at least 85% of the specied strength and of no single
core is less than 75% of the specied strength. The relation between compressive
strength of 150 300 mm cylinders and cores, from a column for HSC with a
compressive strength of 69 N/mm2, was investigated by Cook [1989]. Based on his
research, he concluded that the ACI criteria also applied to HSC.
European guidance is available in prEN 13791.
4.6 Concrete
concrete bond test
18
Where new concrete is placed against old concrete, such as in bridge deck overlays, bond
between the two is required. Various bonding agents may be used to achieve this. In
general three methods of testing are employed for determining concreteconcrete
interfacial bond strength, i.e. split shear test, direct shear test and direct tensile test [Zia
et al. 1997].
Test methods/requirements for HSC 4
4.7 Reinforcement
concrete bond test
4.8 Abrasion
resistance test
Tests were performed by de Larrard et al. [1993] to determine bond strength between
HSC and reinforcing bars using the RILEM beam test. It was found that the increase in
bond strength with high strength concrete (compared with normal strength concrete)
was approximately 80% for 10-mm diameter deformed bars and 30% for 25-mm
diameter deformed bars. This improvement in bond strength for HSC is credited to the
increase in concrete tensile strength.
The two ASTM test standards, ASTM C779 and ASTM C1138, used for abrasion resistance
testing of concrete were found to be suitable for evaluating abrasion resistance of high
strength concretes of strength up to 120 N/mm2 subjected to heavy trafc and waterborne debris [Sonebi and Khayat 2001].
European standards for abrasion resistance testing should also be suitable for HSC
classes covered by EN 206-1: 2000. These incude EN 13892-4: 2002, EN 1338: 2003, EN
1339: 2003 and EN 1340: 2003 for oor screeds, concrete paving blocks, concrete
paving ags and concrete kerb units, respectively.
4.9 Permeability tests
Different researchers have used different test methods to measure permeability of

concrete. There are three categories of test methods for permeability measurement: air
permeability, hydraulic permeability and chloride ion permeability. Basheer et al. [1993]
have given a review of different methods of on-site permeability measurement for
concrete.
Various rapid test procedures were evaluated by Stanish et al. [2001] to determine the
chloride penetration resistance of concrete. They have stated that the most promising
test procedure is the Rapid Migration Test, standardised as a Nordtest procedure
NT Build 492.
19
5 Challenges in the use of HSC
5. Challenges in the use of HSC

High strength concrete is still a relatively new material, hence there are still some
challenges to overcome in the elds of design and construction of structures utilising
HSC. Some of these challenges are outlined below.
5.1 Challenges related to

design
Lack of ofcial standards
The material properties of HSC are different to those of normal strength concrete basically
due to lower water/cement ratios and the high cement content. These differences in
behaviour have to be considered when designing structures incorporating HSC.
One of the problems faced when seeking to use high strength concrete for bridge
construction is the lack of code requirements or ofcial standards for HSC in many
countries. Some codes restrict the strength of concrete that can be used for design
purposes. This restriction implies that if designing according to these codes the full
potential of HSC cannot be taken advantage of. This problem may be overcome by using
the standards from countries where the use of HSC has been much more widespread, as
in the USA, France, Norway and Canada; given that this is agreed upon by the authorities
and the various parties involved in construction. EN 1992-1-1: 2004 can be used for
guidance on the use of HSC classes covered by EN 206-1: 2000. A review of properties
and design guidance for high performance concrete in different codes of practice is
provided in Concrete Society Technical Report No. 49 [1998] and by Waleed [2001].
Guidance has been provided for the use of high performance concrete (including HSC) in
bridge construction by United States Department of Transportation [FHWA, 2005].
It should be noted that the forthcoming Eurocode for concrete bridges EN 1992-2, will
cover high strength concrete in line with other European standards.
Transfer length
Fracture behaviour
For high strength concrete there is a considerable reduction in transfer length with
increased bond stresses which may result in higher bursting and splitting forces [Cordes
and Burkhardt, 1996].
High strength concrete shows a more brittle behaviour compared with normal strength
concrete because of differences in the stiffness and fracture behaviour. The internal damage
pattern of HSC is different to that of NSC because in the latter most of the cracks extend
around the aggregate but in HSC they mostly extend through the aggregate. The fracture
properties and relatively brittle behaviour of HSC should be understood and incorporated in
the structural design to avoid potential problems, especially when designing long span
bridges, which may be more vulnerable to damage due to wind. Other circumstances
where this may be important include structures in regions with high seismic activity.
In order to overcome the above challenges, the ductility of HSC structures can be
increased by providing additional connement and compression reinforcement to the
concrete members. The provision of adequate connement steel for ductility is
stipulated in codes such as ACI 31899 [1999].
20
Challenges in the use of HSC 5
5.2 Challenges related to

construction
Self-desiccation
Challenges during the placement and nishing of HSC arise due to incorporation of
admixtures, high cement and low water content in HSC. All these factors make HSC
more sensitive to construction practices than NSC; however, knowing how HSC would
behave and acting accordingly should allow HSC to be used with condence.
Self-desiccation arises as a result of using low water/cementitious ratios, which is the

normal practice for HSC. As a result of self-desiccation the hydration and maturity of the
concrete may stop if additional moisture is not provided. This can be overcome by wet
curing of concrete. For thick concrete sections, it may not be possible to provide external
moisture input throughout the section depth (see section 3.2). However a novel way
used to introduce additional water within the body of the concrete to aid curing was the
replacement of a portion of the normal weight aggregate with saturated lightweight
aggregate [Weber and Reinhardt 1996].
Consistence
High strength concretes usually are cement-rich; the lower concrete consistence
(compared to NSC), the occulation of cement particles and high cohesion may lead to
placement and nishing problems in such concrete [ACI 363R-92(97)]. The use of a
superplasticiser is needed to deal with these problems.
Heat generation
Heat generation for HSC is generally high as a result of the high cement content;
furthermore high temperatures and use of rapid-hardening cements will increase the
temperature rise, increasing the risk of early age thermal cracking and delayed ettringite
formation. Combination of Portland cement and additions such as ground granulated
blastfurnace slag or y ash will reduce the heat generated by hydration; minimising the
cement content is also an option (provided there is enough cement for durability and
consistence).
Transportation of precast
girders
Pumping for in-situ

construction
With the use of high strength concrete, longer span lengths are achievable. However, the
precast girders consequently become heavier and longer. The site access and the route to
the site may be the limiting factors in deciding the length of the girder that can be
transported.
Owing to the usually cohesive and sticky nature of HSC mixes, the pumping operation
for in-situ construction has to be carefully planned and appropriate size and type of
pumps employed.
21
5 Challenges in the use of HSC
Figure 1
Pumping concrete
Adherence of concrete to
formwork
Adherence of HSC, being a very cohesive material, to the formwork has been reported
[Schulz, 2003].
Correct use of formwork release agents and appropriate formwork striking times should
resolve this challenge.
Cracking in young concrete
As for NSC, cracking in young HSC can arise for a number of reasons, such as restrained
early thermal contraction, plastic shrinkage and movement of formwork etc. [Concrete
Society 1992]. Some situations that increase the potential for cracking in HSC are
described below.
HSC is prone to plastic shrinkage cracking if curing is delayed, especially for concretes
containing silica fume. With delayed curing the cracking in fresh concrete may be
aggravated further by factors such as high wind speeds and high temperatures.
Cracks due to plastic shrinkage can also arise if fresh concrete is placed on top of existing
concrete that is not in a saturated surface-dry condition.
Cracking can also be caused by a fast rate of setting during concrete placement,
especially for multi-span, continuous structures.
22
Challenges in the use of HSC 5
Availability of suitable
aggregate
5.3 Research needs for HSC
In some geographical locations it may be difcult to obtain local aggregates with suitable
strength or durability characteristics to incorporate in the HSC mix.
There has been extensive growth in research on the use of high strength concrete in the
past decade. A number of countries have established organised programmes to develop
the HSC and HPC technology, notable among these are the United States, Canada,
France, Norway and Japan. An overview of research programmes by various countries is
provided by Zia et al. [1997].
In spite of great advances in the eld of HSC application, there are still some areas where
further research would be benecial. These relate to re performance, fracture properties,
seismic behaviour, fatigue properties, creep and shrinkage properties and autogenous
shrinkage properties of HSC.
23
6 HSC in bridges case studies
6. HSC in bridges case studies

High strength and high performance concretes have been used increasingly in the
construction of both the superstructure and the substructure of bridges. Initial research
in the use of HSC in bridge construction concentrated on the development of precast
prestressed concrete elements. Now, in addition to precast construction, high strength
concrete is being widely utilised for in-situ construction. Furthermore, with the
development of ultra high strength concrete, the possibility of constructing bridges with
unique geometric proles and very thin decks has also opened up.
Some case studies from various countries are presented in the following sections. The
concrete compressive strengths are identied as cylinder or cube strengths, target mean
strengths or characteristic strengths where the information was available from the
references. The extent of information available here regarding the benets of using HSC
and the HSC specications varies for the case studies depending on the extent of
information available in the references.
6.1 United Kingdom
Flintshire (Dee Estuary)

Bridge, 1998
In the UK details of only one bridge using HSC have been found from the literature
survey. At the time of writing the Highways Agency (Motorway and Trunk Road Bridges
in England) had not used HSC for structural applications in England [Loudon, 2003].
The Flintshire (Dee Estuary) Bridge in Wales is a multi-span concrete structure 1000 m in
length, with the main span of 194 m comprising an asymmetric cable-stayed bridge. The
approach viaducts are made with longitudinally post-tensioned multi-cell box girders,
1.5 m in depth and with typical span of 40 m. These box girders are supported on
reinforced concrete piers. The main span has an in-situ concrete inverted trough deck,
parts of which are of HSC and which is post-tensioned both longitudinally and
transversely [Curran, 1996].
Benets of using HSC

HSC was used in parts of the deck. The design aspired to have a cable-stayed bridge deck
which would be light in appearance and durable. The overall structural depth had to be
kept at 1.5 m to deal with the physical constraints due to required navigation air draught
and need for clearance under the overhead cables.
HSC specications
Concrete with a characteristic (cube) compressive strength of 70 N/mm2 was used for
the bridge deck. Further details of the HSC specications used are not known.
Figure 2
Flintshire (Dee Estuary) Bridge, an asymmetric
cable-stayed bridge
Roger Brown
24
HSC in bridges case studies 6
6.2 United States

of America
Bridge on Highway 199 over

Uphapee Creek Alabama,
2000
In the USA, use of high strength and high performance concretes in bridge construction
has been signicant over the last decade. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in
America has been promoting the use of HSC and HPC in bridges. Details about six HSC
bridges built in America are presented below; these have been obtained from the
information available from FHWA [High Performance Concrete 2003]. HSC
specications are provided for one of the bridges, with fewer details for the other bridges.
More details are available in the reference cited above. Where units other than SI units
were given in the reference, they have been converted to SI units with the original units
given in parenthesis.
This bridge is located on Highway 199 over Uphapee Creek in Macon County and was
opened to trafc in April 2000. HSC was utilised in the substructure, girders and deck.
The total length of the bridge is 243 m (798 ft) with seven spans of 35 m (114 ft). The
girder spacing is 2.7 m (8 ft 9 in). The deck thickness is 178 mm (7 in).
Benets of using HSC

The bridge was originally designed using conventional strength concrete, which resulted
in eight spans of 30.5 m (100 ft) using six lines of girders. The design with HSC resulted in
the removal of 247 m (810 ft) of girders at an estimated cost saving of US$100,000.
Furthermore, one less pier was needed due to use of HSC at an estimated saving of
US$100,000. Therefore, total savings were approximately US$200,000 less the added
cost of HSC, although the bid analysis results showed that there was no signicant price
increase for furnishing HSC. The use of HSC resulted on one hand in saving on initial
construction costs and secondly the structure was anticipated to be more durable, which
is expected to result in lower maintenance costs and a longer service life.
HSC specications
Tables 6.1 to 6.3 give the details of specied concrete properties, specied quality
control procedures and approved concrete mix proportions for the bridge components.
The specications in Table 6.1 were set by the Alabama Department of Transportation.
Bridge on Interstate 25 over

Yale Avenue Colorado,
1998
This bridge is located on Interstate 25 over Yale Avenue in Denver, and replaced an old
bridge at the same location. The new bridge was opened to trafc in June 1998. HSC
was used in piers, girders and deck. The bridge has a total length of 65.3 m (214 ft 5 in)
and is skewed in plan. Two girder span lengths were used, of 34 m and 29.7 m (112 ft and
97 ft 7 in). The girder spacing is 1.720 m and the girders are of 1.7 m wide 0.75 m deep
box beam type.
25
Table 6.1
Specied concrete
properties for the
bridge on Highway
199 over Uphapee
Creek Alabama
SPECIFIED CONCRETE PROPERTIES
GIRDERS
CIP (CAST IN PLACE) CONCRETE
Max. water/cementitious materials ratio
0.32
0.40
Min. percentage of Class F y ash
15
15
Max. percentage of Class F y ash
25
25
Min. percentage of Class C y ash
15
20
Max. percentage of Class C y ash
35
30
Min. percentage of silica fume
Max. Percentage of silica fume
15
15
Slump
200 mm (8.0 in)
125 mm (5 in) for superstructure

200 mm (8 in) for substructure
Air content
3.56.0%
3.56.0%
2
Compressive strength at release of strands
55 N/mm (8,000 psi)
Compressive strength design
69 N/mm2 (10,000 psi)

at 28 days
Other
41 N/mm2 (6,000 psi) at 28 days

Maximum temperature of fresh concrete =
35 C (95 F).
Crushed limestone No. 57 or No. 67 as coarse
aggregate.
Table 6.2
Specied quality control procedures for the bridge
on Highway 199 over Uphapee Creek Alabama
GIRDER PRODUCTION
DECK CONSTRUCTION
Curing
Intermittent or partial steam
Wet curing for 7 days
Internal concrete temperature
71 C (160 F) max.
Cylinder curing
Match cure within 3 C (5 F) of

Maintained at 1527 C (6080 F)
product until release. After release, for 48 hours maximum.
cure the same as the girders.
Cylinder size
150 300 mm or 100 200 mm

(6 12 in or 4 8 in)
Frequency of testing
Twelve cylinders for every 38 m3)

(50 yd3).
Other QA/QC requirements
Monitor internal temperature at

three locations. Trial placement
consisting of full cross-section of
girder at least 3 m (10 ft) long in
the planned casting bed
150 300 mm or 100 200 mm

6 12 in or 4 8 in
Concrete temperature at time of

placement between 10 C and 35 C
(50 F and 95 F). Test pour at least
100 mm (4 in) thick and 37 m2
(400 ft2) surface area.
Benets of using HSC

The requirement for long spans with a shallow superstructure depth was met by the use
of HSC box beam girders with a design cylinder compressive strength of 69 N/mm2
(10,000 psi). With the use of HSC the bridge used only two spans compared with the
four spans for the old bridge; this provided the required additional room for a turning
lane under the bridge. The new bridge is 42 m (138 ft) wide and has one pier with four
columns. The previous bridge was 33.5 m (110 ft) wide and had three piers and a total of
45 columns. Thus the new bridge has the advantages of having improved aesthetics and
sight distances.
26
Table 6.3
Approved concrete
mix proportions for
the bridge on
Highway 199 over
Uphapee Creek
Alabama
APPROVED CONCRETE
MIX PROPORTIONS
Cement brand
Cement type
III
3
CIP (CAST IN PLACE)

SUPERSTRUCTURE
CIP (CAST IN PLACE)

SUBSTRUCTURE
Blue Circle
Holman
II
II
3
Cement quantity
447 kg/m
(753 lb/yd3)
390 kg/m
(658 lb/yd3)
Fly ash type
C
3
380 kg/m3
(640 lb/yd3)
Fly ash quantity
79 kg/m
(133 lb/yd3)
98 kg/m3
(165 lb/yd3)
95 kg/m3
(160 lb/yd3)
Fine aggregate 1. type
Natural sand
Natural sand
Natural sand
Fine aggregate 1. quantity
412 kg/m
(695 lb/yd3)
618 kg/m
(1042 lb/yd3)
587 kg/m3
(990 lb/yd3)
Fine aggregate 2. type
Natural sand
222 kg/m
(374 lb/yd3)
Coarse aggregate, max. size
18 mm* (3/4 in)
25 mm (1 in)
Coarse aggregate type
No. 67 crushed limestone**
Crushed limestone
Crushed limestone
Coarse aggregate quantity
1136 kg/m3
(1916 lb/yd3)
1104 kg/m3
(1860 lb/yd3)
1157 kg/m3
(1950 lb/yd3)
Water
147 kg/m3
(248 lb/yd3)
171 kg/m3
(288 lb/yd3)
178 kg/m3
(300 lb/yd3)
Water-reducer brand
Delvo
MB Pozzolith
100-XR
Water-reducer type
B and D
Fine aggregate 2. quantity
Notes
* Later changed to 1/2 in.
** Later changed to No. 7
limestone.
GIRDERS
B and D
3
Water-reducer quantity
2.8 kg/m
(75 oz/yd3)
0.9 kg/m3
(25 oz/yd3)
0.9 kg/m3
(25 oz/yd3)
High-range water-reducer brand
Rheobuild 1000
Polyheed 977
High-range water-reducer type
A and F
A and F
High-range water-reducer quantity
8.3 kg/m
(225 oz/yd3)
3.6 kg/m
(98 oz/yd3)
3.5 kg/m3
(96 oz/yd3)
Air-entrainment brand
Micro air
MB AE90
Air-entrainment type
Surfactant
Anionic Surfactant
Air-entrainment quantity
1.3 kg/m
(35 oz/yd3)
1.2 kg/m
(32 oz/yd3)
1.2 kg/m3
(32 oz/yd3)
Water/cementitious materials ratio
0.28
0.37
0.38
Bridge on State Route 920

over Interstate 75 Georgia,
2002
This is a bridge located on State Route 920 over Interstate 75. Stage 1 was opened to
trafc in February 2002. The girders and deck are made of HSC. The total length of the
bridge is 107.5 m. The girder types used were AASHTO Types II and IV with girder span
lengths of 16.25, 38.75, 38.75 and 13.75 m. The girder spacing was 2.225 and 2.309 m for
Type II girders and 2.251 and 2.286 m for Type IV girders. The deck thickness was
205 mm for Type II and 200 mm for Type IV girders. Design cylinder compressive
strengths of 70 N/mm2 and 50 N/mm2 at 56 days were used for the girders and deck,
respectively.
27
Figure 3
Bridge located on State Route 920 over Interstate 75
in Georgia, USA
Photo courtesy of Portland Cement Association, USA.
Benets of using HSC

Optimum beam spacing and a minimum depth with AASHTO Type IV girders could be
achieved by designing the bridge using HSC. Five additional girders would have been
required with the use of conventional strength concrete.
Charenton Canal Bridge

Louisiana, 1999
Figure 4
Bridge (LA 87) located over Charenton Canal in
Louisiana, USA
Photo courtesy of Portland Cement Association, USA
28
This bridge (LA 87) is located over Charenton Canal in St. Mary Parish and was opened to
trafc in November 1999. HSC was used for the piles, pile caps, girders, deck, approach
slabs and barrier rails. The total length of the bridge is 111.3 m (365 ft) with a 887.9-m
(2913 ft) horizontal radius. Five girder span lengths were used varying from 21.9 m to 21.6 m
(71 ft 113/8 in to 70 ft 11 in) because of the horizontal curve. The girders were of AASHTO
Type III. The girder spacing was 3 m (10 ft) and the deck thickness was 200 mm (8 in).
Benets of using HSC

Use of HSC with a concrete cylinder compressive strength of 62 N/mm2 (9,000 psi)
allowed the use of ve lines of girders instead of the six lines that would have been
required if concrete with cylinder compressive strength of 41 N/mm2 (6,000 psi) had
been used. With the use of HSC in the piles their resistance to compressive and tensile
driving stresses was increased, allowing the casting and shipping of longer length piles.
Louisiana Department of Transport is expecting a 75100-year service life for the bridge
instead of the normal 50-year service life for normal strength concrete structures,
because of the added durability of the HSC members.
120th Street and Giles Road

Bridge Nebraska, 1996
The 120th Street and Giles Road Bridge is located in Sarpy County, Nebraska and was
opened to trafc in July 1996. HSC was used in the construction of girders and deck. The
total length of the bridge is 68.6 m (225 ft) with a 30 skew. The girder type used was
NU1100 with three girder span lengths of 22.9 m (75 ft). The girder spacing was 3.8 m
(12 ft 5 in). The deck thickness was 190 mm (71/2 in).
Benets of using HSC

A 56-day concrete cylinder girder strength of 83 N/mm2 (12,000 psi) was specied for
this bridge, which was nearly twice the normal design strength in Nebraska. This was the
only performance characteristic required for the concrete girders. The bridge deck
concrete required two performance characteristics, strength and chloride permeability. A
56-day concrete cylinder deck strength of 55 N/mm2 (8,000 psi) was required, the
acceptance criteria also included a rapid chloride permeability of less than 1800
coulombs at 56 days. Seven lines of girders were required with the use of HSC compared
with eleven that would have been necessary with conventional strength concrete girders.
Bridge over Newfound River

(Route 3A)
New Hampshire, 1999
This bridge (Route 3A) is located over Newfound River in Bristol and was opened to
trafc in June 1999. HSC was used in the girders, precast panels and cast-in-situ deck.
The total length of the bridge is 18.3 m (60 ft) with only one girder span length. The
girder spacing was 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in). The deck had a 229-mm (9 in) composite section
with 89-mm (3.5 in) thick precast deck panels and 140-mm (5.5 in) thick cast-in-place
concrete.
Benets of using HSC

Designers were able to achieve wider girder spacing and a shallower girder with the use
of HSC. One line of girders was eliminated through the use of higher strength concrete in
the girders. The use of HSC is expected to result in greater durability with reduced longterm maintenance for both the girders and the deck.
29
6.3 Canada
Portneuf Bridge, 1992
In Canada the use of high performance concrete in bridge construction has been
extensive over the last decade. Different Canadian provinces have their own
specications for HPC. A detailed review of bridges built in Canada using HPC is available
in a state-of-the-art report by Bickley and Mitchell [2001]. Brief details of some of the
bridges that have utilised HPC with high strength (i.e. HSC) are given below.
The Portneuf Bridge in Quebec comprises precast post-tensioned beams of 24.8 m

(81.5 ft) span [CEB-FIP 1994].
Benets of using HSC

The use of HSC resulted in a smaller loss of prestress that allowed a larger permissible
stress and consequently smaller cross-sections could be utilised. The use of HSC also
resulted in enhanced durability properties for the structure.
HSC specications
Concrete with average cylinder compressive strength of 75 N/mm2 was used for this
bridge, with a water/cement ratio of 0.29 and an air content of 57.5%.
St. Eustache Bridge, 1992
The St. Eustache Bridge in Quebec was built as a replacement for a 17-m short span
bridge superstructure. The bridge comprises precast pre-tensioned channel-shaped
girders [CEB-FIP 1994].
Benets of using HSC

The major consideration for choosing HSC was to achieve good durability characteristics.
Furthermore, the initial cost was less than for a steelconcrete composite girder
HSC specications
HSC with 60 N/mm2 design cylinder compressive strength was used for this bridge; the
water/cement ratio was 0.26 and the air content was 4.5%.
HSC Bridges in Alberta
30
Table 6.4 provides details of some of the HSC bridges built in the province of Alberta
from 1997 to 2000.
Table 6.4
HSC bridges built in Alberta,
Canada [Bickley and Mitchell, 2001]
BRIDGE
DATE OF
CONSTRUCTION
SPECIFIED 28-DAY
CYLINDER STRENGTH
(N/mm2)
Stoney Trail
1997
55
Elevated roadway at Calgary Airport
1998
55
Centre Street
1998
55
Ogden Road overpass
1998
55
Centre Street rehabilitation
1999
45
35
Anderson/McLeod Interchange
2000
50
40
Deerfoot Trail/22X Interchange
2000
50
40
Fish Creek LRT
2000
50
40
6.4 France
In France, almost all the major bridges are now built using high performance concrete.
Pertuiset Bridge, 19871988
In 19871988 Pertuiset Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge, was built over the Loire River. A
owable HSC was chosen for the towers and the 180-mm (7 in) thick deck. The
maximum stress under sustained load was 23 N/mm2 (3,300 psi) and under extreme
overload was 38 N/mm2 (5,400 psi) [FIP-CEB 1990].
Benets of using HSC

HSC was used to make the construction cost effective.
HSC specications
The design concrete strength was specied as 60 N/mm2 (8,600 psi). The mean strength
of concrete achieved at 16 hours was 33 N/mm2 (4,700 psi) and at 28 days was
80 N/mm2 (11,500 psi). The water/cement ratio was 0.33 and the slump was more than
200 mm (8 in.)
Joigny Bridge, 19881989
Joigny Bridge was constructed in 19881989. As an experimental exercise the HSC used
for this bridge was produced without using silica fume in a commercial ready-mixed
concrete plant. It is a three-span bridge, with a centre span of 46 m (152 ft) and
externally prestressed double I-sections. The bridge has been instrumented to obtain its
long-term performance record. Temperature and deformation have been monitored
since construction [Malier et al., 1989; Malier and Pliskin, 1990; Malier et al., 1991].
31
Benets of using HSC

The design studies showed that by using concrete with a specied strength of 60 N/mm2
(8,600 psi) rather than 35 N/mm2 (5,000 psi), 30% savings were made in the concrete
volume used and there was a 24% load reduction on the pier, abutments and
foundations. The number of prestressing strands was also reduced as a result of the
reduction in dead weight.
HSC specications
The specied compressive strength was 60 N/mm2 (8,600 psi) and the average concrete
strength obtained was 78 N/mm2 (11,200 psi).
Viaduct over Rhone River,

Lyon
The 494-m long viaduct over the Rhone River forms part of the Northern Lyon ring toll
motorway. The viaduct has seven spans of 57.4 m, 4 80 m, 73.6 m and 41.4 m. The deck
is a wide box-girder of 3.2 m constant depth [Pham and Rialland, 1996].
HSC specications
High strength/high performance concrete of 60 N/mm2 characteristic cylinder
compressive strength was used for the bridge superstructure, with the mix proportions as
given in Table 6.5.
6.5 Norway
Table 6.5
HSC mix proportions for viaduct over Rhone River
[Pham and Rialland, 1996]
32
Since 1989 most of the concrete bridges in Norway have been constructed with the
concrete satisfying the general requirement of having a water/binder ratio of less than
0.4, in addition to the use of silica fume in the concrete mix. These specications have
been used to improve the chloride resistance of the structures exposed to de-icing salts
and marine environment [CEB-FIP 1994].
CONCRETE MIX PROPORTIONS
DECKS
Cement type
CPA HPR
Cement quantity
425 kg/m3
Fine aggregate type
Sand
Fine aggregate quantity
852 kg/m3
Coarse aggregate quantity
1066 kg/m3
Water
140 kg/m3
Plasticiser type
Sikament FF86
Plasticiser quantity
5 kg/m3
Stovset Bridge, 19921993
Stovset Bridge was built in 19921993; it is a prestressed cantilever bridge with a centre
span of 220 m (725 ft) and two side spans of 100 m. HSC was used for the side spans and
part of the main span. The middle part of the centre span, approximately 145 m was built
of light-weight high strength concrete (LWHSC) [CEB-FIP 1994 and Elkem Microsilica
Concrete 2000].
Benets of using HSC and LWHSC

HSC and LWHSC were used to give the benet of reduced weight with increased
strength.
HSC specications
HSC of characteristic strength 55N/mm2 was used for the side spans and part of the
main span. The LWHSC (LC55) was used for the middle part of the centre span. The mix
design for LWHSC is given in Table 6.6.
Raftsundet Bridge, 1998
Table 6.6
LWHSC mix proportions for Stovset Bridge
[Elkem Microsilica Concrete 2000]
Raftsundet Bridge is a 711-m long, continuous post-tensioned, cast-in-place, box-section

bridge. The slender, two-lane concrete bridge spans the Raftsundet sound in Northern
Norway. The construction started in May 1996 and was completed in October 1998. The
bridge is supported on three rows of slender, rectangular, twin columns. The four spans
of the bridge are 86, 202, 298 and 125 m, with a box-section depth of more than 14 m
close to the main span columns and of 3 m at mid span. The main span of 298 m has an
underdeck navigation clearance of 46 m. The superstructure of the bridge consists of
10.5 m wide, two lane carriageway, and a 7-m wide box-section [Valum et al. 1999].
MATERIAL
TYPE
QUANTITY (kg/m3)
Cement
HS65
425
Microsilica
30
Fine aggregate
Ardal sand 08 mm
685
Coarse aggregate
Liapor 8, 416 mm light

weight aggregate
520
Total water
194
Plasticiser
Betokem P
1.0
Superplasticiser
Betokem SP 40
4.5
Air-entraining agent
Betokem L(T) 1:9
1.5
Water/cementitious material ratio
<0.4
33
Figure 5
Raftsundet Bridge, Northern Norway
Courtesy of Aas-Jakoe
HSC specications
The central 224 m of this span is constructed from high performance light weight
concrete which has a minimum 28-day compressive (cube) strength of 60 N/mm2 (grade
LC60) and hardened density of 19.75 kN/m3. The rest of the superstructure and the
columns are constructed from high performance normal weight concrete which has a
hardened density of 24 kN/m3, and a minimum characteristic compressive (cube)
strength of 65 N/mm2 (C65). A total of 10,700 m3 normal weight concrete, C65, is used
in the bridge along with 2,400 m3 light weight concrete, LC60.
A summary of the results from concrete testing during the production of high
performance lightweight and normal weight concretes is provided in Table 6.7. Table 6.8
provides the specications for these two types of concretes used.
Table 6.7
Test results for C65
and LC60 used in
Raftsundet Bridge
[Valum et al. 1999]
PROPERTY
Compressive strength 28-day (N/mm2)
Modulus of elasticity (kN/mm2)
Hardened density 28-day (kN/m )
34
HIGH PERFORMANCE
NORMAL WEIGHT
CONCRETE (C65)
HIGH PERFORMANCE
LIGHT WEIGHT
CONCRETE (LC60)
Number of tests
68
68
Average strength
71.9
65.9
Standard deviation
5.6
3.7
Number of tests
E-modulus (Eo)
27.5
23.5
Standard deviation
4.1
1.1
Number of tests
36
Average density
24.63
19.32
Standard deviation
0.28
0.30
Table 6.8
Specications for
C65 and LC60 used in
Raftsundet Bridge
[Valum et al. 1999]
MATERIAL
TYPE
DRY WEIGHT kg/m3

HIGH PERFORMANCE
LIGHT WEIGHT
CONCRETE (LC60)
HIGH PERFORMANCE
NORMAL WEIGHT
CONCRETE (C65)
Cement
Norcem HS65
430
440
Silica
Finnfjordbotn
25
22
Normal weight ne aggregate
08 mm
745
750
Normal weight coarse
816 mm
Light weight coarse aggregate
416 mm
Total water
1035
550
175
180
Plasticiser
SP 40
Water reducer
3.25
3.5
Air entrainment
L (M)
0.5
0.6
Air content
36%
4 (Tolerance 1% to +1 %)
W/C ratio
0.36
0.37
3
Fresh density
19.50 kN/m
(Tolerance 3 % to +1 %)
24 kN/m3
(Tolerance 2 % to +5 %)
Density differences between lightweight and normal weight concrete <4.5 kN/m3
6.6 Japan
2nd Ayaragigawa Bridge,

1973
Three HSC bridges were built for Japan National Railways in 1973; these bridges are of
historical importance. The reasons for using HSC were to lower the dead load, reduce the
deection, vibration, noise and the maintenance cost. After about 30 years of service,
the bridges representing the rst generation of HSC bridges world-wide have performed
according to expectations. The information about these bridges and the CNT Super
Bridge has been obtained from the CEB Bulletin No. 222 [CEB-FIP 1994]. The information
about Akkagawa Railway Bridge has been obtained from CEB Bulletin No. 197 [FIP-CEB
1990].
The 2nd Ayaragigawa Bridge has a maximum span of 50 m. This bridge consists of posttensioned bulb T-beams with 60 degrees skew.
Benets of using HSC

The high strength concrete was chosen to reduce the weight of individual beams to less
than 150 tons for lifting. If normal strength concrete had been used, the weight would
have been 170 tons.
HSC specications
For this bridge concrete design strength of 59 N/mm2 (8,600 psi) was used.
35
6 HSC in Bridges case studies
Iwahana Bridge, 1973
Iwahana Bridge was the rst medium-span prestressed concrete truss bridge in Japan
that utilised HSC with a concrete strength over 79 N/mm2 (11,500 psi). This bridge is a
45 m (148 ft) single-span Warren truss, which was selected to satisfy the clearance under
the bridge and to reduce deection. The truss members including the jointing parts were
prefabricated in the factory and were transported to the site. The prefabricated members
were joined by using concrete and/or polymer adhesive.
Benets of using HSC

A concrete bridge was utilised in this instance, as opposed to a steel truss bridge which
would have been more economical, to eliminate noise and vibration problems.
HSC specications
For Iwahana Bridge the concrete design strength was 88 N/mm2 (12,750 psi) and the
average strength obtained by the standard specimens was 83 N/mm2 (12,000 psi) with a
coefcient of variation of less than 4%.
Otanabe Railway Bridge,

1973
Otanabe Railway bridge comprises a 24-m (79 ft) single span Howe truss.
Benets of using HSC

High strength concrete was used to reduce maintenance costs and noise.
HSC specications
For this bridge HSC of 79 N/mm2 (11,500 psi) design strength was used.
Akkagawa Railway Bridge,

1975
The Akkagawa Railway Bridge is a 305-m (1,000 ft) long truss bridge that has main spans
of 45 m (148 ft). The members were prefabricated and then assembled into 45-m (148 ft)
sections and lifted into position. The joints were cast in-situ with 59 N/mm2 (8,600 psi)
concrete.
HSC specications
For this bridge the prefabricated members had a required concrete strength of 79 N/mm2
(11,500 psi); 95 N/mm2 (13,750 psi) average strength was obtained with a standard
deviation of 4.4 N/mm2 (630 psi). After casting, the members were steam cured at 65 C
(149 F) for 12 hours, then the concrete was autoclave cured at 180 C (356 F) and
10 atmospheres for further 20 hours.
CNT Super Bridge, 1993
36
In 1993 CNT Super Bridge was built as a pedestrian bridge between two laboratories. The
bridge comprises a 40-m (132 ft) single-span post-tensioned box beam with outstanding
anges. The beam span/depth ratio was kept at 40 for aesthetic purposes. The
shallowness of the beam created a vibration problem that was overcome by the use of a
vibration controller attached under the beam deck.
Benets of using HSC

HSC was used to reduce the beam depth.
HSC specications
Very owable HSC of 100 N/mm2 (14,600 psi) was chosen for the bridge. The
water/binder ratio of 0.20 was used for the concrete with a 25 2 cm (10 0.8 in) slump
and a slump ow of 60 5 cm (24 2 in).
The Kiso River and Ibi River

Bridges, 2001
Two 30-m wide six-lane bridge structures were built as part of the Meichin Expressway
to cross the neighbouring mouths of the Ibi and Kiso rivers. The 1,145-m long Kiso River
Bridge and the 1,379-m long Ibi River Bridge are located approximately 1,300 m apart.
Both bridges include a total of nine, virtually identical extra dosed structures, each with a
wingspread of about 170 m, built using the free cantilever construction method. The
extra dosed bridges are connected by intermediate steel girders of about 100-m length,
resulting in typical span lengths of about 270 m. The bridges are characterised by one
single plane of pylons and tendons, located on the centre line of the six-lane structures.
The precast segment method was employed for the concrete sections of the girders.
Each segment with weight of 30004000 kN was precast by the short-line-match
casting method; these precast concrete segments are 33 m wide, 5 m long and up to 7 m
deep [JSCE, 2001].
HSC specications
HSC with compressive strength of 60 N/mm2 was used in these bridges.
6.7 Denmark
Great Belt Project,
19881998
A major tunnel and bridge connection was constructed in Denmark to cross the Great
Belt. This project consisted of two single-track railway tunnels, each 8,000 m in length
connecting the islands of Sprogoe and Zealand, and a parallel road bridge (East Bridge) of
6,800 m (22,440 ft). The central part of this bridge is a suspension bridge with a main
span of 1,624 m (5,360 ft) and pylons of 254-m (835 ft) height. The islands of Sprogoe
and Funen are connected by the West Bridge, a combined road and railway bridge with a
total length of 6,600 m (21,780 ft). This bridge structure consists mainly of 110-m
(363 ft) long precast concrete girders. The construction work for the project started in
1988 and was completed in 1998 [CEB-FIP 1994].
Benets of using HSC

High strength/high performance concrete was used as a better means of achieving the
service life requirement of 100 years for the project. Durability was a major consideration
for the project.
HSC specications
Table 6.9 provides the limits established for the concrete proportions for the project.
37
Table 6.9
Limits for concrete proportions for Great Belt
Project [CEB-FIP 1994]
Notes
*based on an efciency factor of 0.5 for y ash and 2.0 for silica
fume.
**Type A is for precast tunnel segments and in the part of the two
bridges exposed to seawater.
***Type B is for the pylons on the East Bridge and the precast girders
on the West Bridge.
Bridge across the motorway

in Northern Jutland
SPECIFICATION
TYPE A** CONCRETE
TYPE B*** CONCRETE
Water/cementitious material ratio*
<0.35
<0.40
Fly ash content of binder
>10%
>10%
Silica fume content of binder
5% ~ 8%
5% ~ 8%
Fly ash plus silica fume
<25%
<25%
Total water content
<135 l/m
<140 l/m3
Entrained air required where exposed

to freeze-thaw
This bridge was built as an arched bridge with high strength concrete of 75 N/mm2
characteristic compressive strength [Toft, 1996].
HSC specications
For the concrete mix, the quantity of cement and silica fume used was 430 kg/m3 and
30 kg/m3, respectively, and a water/cementitious ratio of 0.26 was used. Table 6.10 gives
the measured concrete properties.
6.8 Germany
Deutzer Bridge, 1978
The Deutzer Bridge built in 1978 crosses the Rhine River close to Cologne. The bridge is a
free cantilever construction with three spans of 132 m, 185 m and 121 m (435 ft, 610 ft
and 399 ft). A lightweight HSC was used to case 61 m (200 ft) of the middle span and the
rest of the bridge was cast with normal weight HSC [FIP-CEB 1990].
HSC specications
Both the lightweight and normal weight concretes had a specied strength of 54 N/mm2
(7,860 psi). The mean strength obtained in the eld was 72.4 N/mm2 (10,500 psi) for the
lightweight concrete and 68 N/mm2 (9,890 psi) for the normal weight concrete.
Table 6.10
Measured concrete properties [Toft, 1996]
Notes
*Before a penetration resistance of 3.5 N/mm2 was reached
** The results are mean values of results of three specimens.
38
PROPERTY
VALUE
Slump
120 mm
Air content
2.53.5%
Time before setting*
89 hours
Compressive strength
50 N/mm2 after 2 days

87.5 N/mm2 after 28 days
Splitting tensile strength
6.25 N/mm2
Modulus of elasticity**
21,100 N/mm2 after 1 day

28,800 N/mm2 after 4 days
Shrinkage
444 millionths at 88 days
Creep
0.437 millionths/psi at 88 days
6.9 Spain
The Guadalete River Bridge
The road by-pass for the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria across the Guadalete River in
Spain used prestressed precast beams of HSC for the bridge decks. The bridge has a total
length of 210 m, with two parallel decks 11.5-m wide and divided into eight 26.25-m
length spans. Two I-beams of 1.74-m height are used for each span, which are joined
together by a deck slab of 250-mm thickness [Delgado et al. 1996].
Benets of using HSC

The bridge is located near the Atlantic Ocean and is exposed to a marine environment;
hence it was thought that HSC, with its high impermeability against chloride ions, would
result in a more durable structure.
HSC specications
The HSC used in the bridge decks was of characteristic strength 80 N/mm2. The bridge
deck beams were steam cured for 12 hours at 60 C. The mix design parameters for HSC
are given in Table 6.11.
6.10 South Korea

Seonyu Footbridge, 2002
Seonyu Footbridge in Seoul, also called Footbridge of Peace, has been built using the ultra
high strength concrete Ductal. The bridge connects the city of Seoul to Seonyu Island
situated in the Han River and was inaugurated in April 2002. The bridge structure is
composed of a Ductal arch to which steel approach spans are connected. The 120-m arch
is composed of six prefabricated segments. The arch has a width of 4.3 m and a depth of
1.3 m. The structure comprises of a thin 30-mm thick slab supported by transversal ribs and
two longitudinal ribs at the extremities of the transversal section [Behloul and Lee, 2002].
Benets of using UHSC

The use of ultra high strength concrete allowed the bridge to have a very slender and
thin structure; furthermore, the amount of material used in the structure was half that
which would have been used in a similar structure made with traditional concrete.
Table 6.11
Concrete mix proportions for Guadalete River
Bridge [Delgado et al, 1996]
CONCRETE MIX PROPORTIONS
DECKS
Cement type
155A
Cement quantity
452 kg/m3
Silica fume (microsilica) form
Densied powder
Silica fume quantity
23 kg/m3 (5%)
Fine aggregate type
Sand
Fine aggregate quantity
889 kg/m3
Coarse aggregate, max. size
12 mm
Coarse aggregate type
Crushed limestone
0/6 mm ne gravel quantity
333 kg/m3
2/12 mm ne gravel quantity
634 kg/m3
Water
147 litres/m3
High-range water-reducer (superplasticiser) quantity
14 litres/m3
39
HSC specications
The concrete used in the Seoul footbridge achieved a compressive strength of
203 N/mm2 with a standard deviation of 11 N/mm2. The three-point bending strength
was 44.2 N/mm2 with a standard deviation of 2.9 N/mm2.
6.11 List of further

HSC bridges
The details of the bridges from No. 1 to No. 13 in the following list are available from
FHWA [High Performance Concrete 2003]. The details for the rest of the HSC bridges in
this list are provided in the cited references.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
40
Bridge over Newfound River (Route 104), New Hampshire, USA

Rio Puerco Bridge, New Mexico, USA
Bridge over Neuse River (U.S. Highway 401), Wake County, North Carolina, USA
Bridge over Crooked Creek (U.S. Route 22) near Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio,
USA
Bridge on Northbound Interstate 29, Minnehaha County, South Dakota, USA
Bridge on Southbound Interstate 29, Minnehaha County, South Dakota, USA
Bridge on Hickman Road over State Route 840, Dickson County, Tennessee, USA
Bridge on Porter Road over State Route 840, Dickson County, Tennessee, USA
Louetta Road Overpass, State Highway 249, Houston, Texas, USA
Bridge on U.S. Route 67 crossing over North Concho River, U.S. Route 87, and South
Orient Railroad, San Angelo, Texas, USA
Bridge on Route 40 over Falling River, Brookneal, Lynchburg District, Virginia
Bridge on Virginia Avenue over Clinch River, Richlands, Virginia
Bridge on eastbound lanes of State Route 18 over State Route 516 in King County,
Washington, USA
Columbus Arch, Indiana, USA [Price et al., 1997]
Cross Westchester Expressway, New York, USA [Price et al., 1997]
Badhausbrucke in Tulln, Austria [Zehetner and Lindlbauer, 1999]
Second Stichtse Bridge over the Gooi Lake near Almere, the Netherlands [Kaptijn,
1998]
Elorn Bridge, France [CEB-FIP, 1994]
Normandie Bridge, France [CEB-FIP, 1994]
Boulonnais Viaducts, Autoroute A16, France [Price et al. 1997 and Pham, 1997]
Sandhornoya Bridge, Norway [CEB-FIP 1994]
Stongsundet Bridge, Norway [CEB-FIP 1994]
Bridge in Chabowka, Poland [Radomski, 1999]
Lot Overpass, Brussels, Belgium [Bogaert, 2000]
Pilot Project Sasbach, Germany [Bernhardt et al. 1998]
Pilot Project Buchloe, Germany [Zilch et al. 1999]
Wanxian Yangtze River Highway Bridge, China [Zihua, 1996]
Pennar Bridge in Nellore Bypass Project, India [McKenna, 2003]
Bhairab Bridge, Bangladesh [Simons, 2003]
Conclusions 7
7. Conclusions
High strength concrete has been used for bridge construction for over 30 years. The
denition and maximum strength criterion for high strength concrete varies from
country to country. However, usually HSC is any concrete that has compressive
strengths that exceed that of concrete in normal use, has a low water/cement ratio and
may have additions and admixtures. The limits of achievable strength and durability
properties for concrete are being stretched further with considerable research going on
to make the use of HSC easier and more common place.
The materials for producing high strength concrete are widely available. The objectives
for using HSC should be outlined and discussed with specialists and people experienced
in dealing with HSC. Laboratory and eld trials should be carried out to achieve a HSC
mix design satisfying the design and construction objectives. Strict quality control and
quality assurance procedures should be followed to reap the full benets of using HSC.
For high strength concrete, pre-construction meetings should be held between suppliers,
contractors and owners to develop a strategy for ensuring a successful outcome. The
most important factor for successful HSC production is quality control during the
planning, design, production and curing phases.
The design problems associated with the brittle fracture behaviour of HSC may be
overcome generally by provision of adequate longitudinal and connement reinforcement
and by due consideration of areas where this brittle nature of HSC may cause a problem.
From the current literature survey and information gathering exercise, it appears that
HSC has not been used extensively in the United Kingdom. However, use of 50 N/mm2
concrete is commonplace in UK bridge construction and that, according to the ACI
denition, may be considered as high strength concrete. In the USA, the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) has been working towards promotion of high performance
concrete with the appropriate changes being made to the ACI Standards. Depending on
the geographical location and environmental exposure of the bridge, either high strength
or high performance concrete may be the concrete of choice for bridge construction.
A helpful and concise overview of research programmes being carried out throughout the
world on the development of high strength concrete (and other types of high
performance concrete) is provided by Zia et al. [1997], encompassing the research
activities in the USA, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Japan, Norway and Sweden.
The use of HSC in bridges provides many advantages such as construction with smaller
or fewer structural components, the possibility of achieving longer spans, increase in the
load-carrying capacity without an increase in the bridge member sizes, enhancement in
the durability of bridge members, lower maintenance costs, longer service lives and
increase in the speed of construction. Due to these advantages, use of HSC can result in
cost saving including both the initial and service life cost.
41
8 References
8. References
References
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44

The Concrete Bridge Development Group aims to promote excellence in the
design, construction and management of concrete bridges.
With a membership that includes all sectors involved in the concrete bridge
industry bridge owners and managers, contractors, designers and suppliers the
Group acts as a forum for debate and the exchange of new ideas. A major
programme of bridge assessment, strengthening and widening is already
underway to accommodate European standards and the increasing pressures on
the UK road network. The Group provides an excellent vehicle for the industry to
co-ordinate an effective approach and to enhance the use of concrete.
Through an active programme of events and seminars, task groups, newsletters,
study visits and publications, the Concrete Bridge Development Group aims to:
Address the challenge of the national bridge programme
Provide a focus for all those involved in concrete bridge design, construction
and management
Promote an integrated approach and encourage development of innovative
ideas and concepts

Promote best practice in design and construction through education, training
and information dissemination

Make representations on national and international codes and standards
Identify future research and development needs
Maximise opportunities to develop the wider and better use of concrete.
Membership of the Concrete Bridge Development Group is open to those who
have an interest in promoting and enhancing the concrete bridge industry. Five
main types of membership are available:
Group membership for industry organisations and associations
Corporate membership for contractors, consultants, suppliers and specialist
service companies
For further details please contact:

The Concrete Bridge Development Group
Riverside House
4 Meadows Business Park
Station Approach
Blackwater
Camberley
Surrey GU17 9AB
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1276 33777, Fax: +44 (0)1276 38899, e-mail: enquiries@cbdg.org.uk,
website www.cbdg.org.uk
Associate membership for academic organisations

Bridge owners for all organisations that commission, own, maintain and
manage concrete bridges

Individual consultants
By being representative of the whole industry, the Concrete Bridge Development

Group acts as a catalyst for the best in concrete bridge design, construction,
maintenance and management.
PUBLICATIONS FROM THE CONCRETE BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT GROUP

Integral bridges Technical Guide 1
A report of a study visit in August 1997 by a CBDG delegation to North America, sponsored by the DTI (1997)
Guide to testing and monitoring of durability of concrete structures Technical Guide 2
A practical guide for bridge owners and designers (2002)
The use of bre composites in concrete bridges Technical Guide 3
A state-of-the-art review of the use of bre composites (2000)
The aesthetics of concrete bridges Technical Guide 4
A technical guide dealing with the appearance and aesthetics of concrete bridges (2001)
Fast construction of concrete bridges Technical Guide 5
The report of a Concrete Bridge Development Group Working Party (2005)
You can buy the above publications from the Concrete Bookshop at www.concreteinfo.org and please visit
www.cbdg.org.uk for further publications, including free download (2005).
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS
Self-compacting concrete in bridge construction Technical Guide 7
Written by Peter JM Bartos, due out June 2005.
Lightweight concrete in bridge construction Technical Guide 8
To be written by Philip Bamforth
CCIP002
CI/Sfb
UDC
High Strength Concrete in Bridge Construction
High Strength Concrete in Bridge Construction: A state-of-the-art report
Over the last decade there has been a huge increase in the use of
high strength concrete (HSC) in bridge construction in countries
such as the USA, Norway, Canada and France. This report was
commissioned by the Concrete Bridge Development Group, with
the support of The Concrete Centre, and researched and authored
by BRE. It provides an overview of the issues related to the use of
HSC, production and placement practices for HSC and the test
methods used for HSC.
The advantages of using HSC in bridge construction are manifold, for
example the use of smaller or fewer structural components, the possibility
of achieving longer spans, achieving lower maintenance costs and ensuring
longer service lives.
This report gives an overview of some of the information currently available
on HSC and is thoroughly referenced to direct the reader to original sources
for more detailed material.
CCIP002
Published June 2005
ISBN 1 904482 15 5
Riverside House, 4 Meadows Business Park,
Station Approach, Blackwater, Camberley, Surrey GU17 9AB
Tel: +44 (0)1276 33777 Fax: +44 (0)1276 38899
www.cbdg.org.uk

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CCIP002

A cement and concrete industry publication

High Strength Concrete in Bridge Construction

High Strength Concrete in

Concrete Bridge Development Group

CONCRETE BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT GROUP

High Strength Concrete in

1.1 Denition of high strength concrete

1.3 Ultra high strength concrete

2.1 Cementitious materials

Conformity and identity testing

4.6 Concreteconcrete bond test

6. HSC in bridges case studies

1.1 Denition of high

In the above denition C50/60 is concrete with minimum characteristic cylinder

1.2 Denition of very high

1.3 Ultra high strength

1.4 Advantages of HSC in

member sizes in the bridge substructure and superstructure.

performance concrete, where concrete mixes can be produced to meet specic

Constituents and mix design for HSC 2

2. Constituents and mix design for HSC

2.1 Cementitious materials

2 Constituents and mix design for HSC

Pulverized fuel ash

Advantages of using pfa

concrete without pfa having equal strength.

cementitious paste volume.

Constituents and mix design for HSC 2

Advantages of using ggbs

Advantages of using silica fume

Requirements for the use of silica fume

superplasticiser is necessary to maintain consistence without increased water/cement

2 Constituents and mix design for HSC

High reactivity metakaolin

High reactivity metakaolin is a reactive aluminosilicate pozzolan. Under well-controlled

Advantages of using high reactivity metakaolin

and long-term compressive strengths.

Requirements for the use of high reactivity metakaolin

prevent differential setting of concrete.

Constituents and mix design for HSC 2

2.5 Mix design for HSC

3 Production, curing and quality control for HSC

3. Production, curing and quality control

3.1 Considerations for

Conventional methods for the production of normal strength concretes should be

Production, curing and quality control for HSC 3

3 Production, curing and quality control for HSC

Research is being conducted internationally to determine new criteria and standards to

should be given a minimum of 7 days of wet curing.

3.3 Quality control

Production, curing and quality control for HSC 3

Trial batching and trial pours

Quality control for mixing

Quality control for curing

4 Test methods/requirements for HSC

4. Test methods/requirements for HSC

4.1 Consistence tests

4.2 Conformity and

Test methods/requirements for HSC 4

4.4 In-situ tests

4 Test methods/requirements for HSC

4.5 Concrete core test