TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

It is the underlying system of public works designed to facilitate movement.

Common Types of Transportation Infrastructures:
● Roads
● Bridges
● Tunnels

FAILURES

Roads
● Alligator cracks is a load associated structural failure. The failure can be due to
weakness in the surface, base, or sub grade; a surface or base that is too thin; poor
drainage, or the combination of all three.
● Block cracks look like large interconnected rectangles (roughly). Block cracking is not
load-associated, but generally caused by shrinkage of the asphalt pavement due to an
inability of asphalt binder to expand and contract with temperature cycles.
● Longitudinal cracks are parallel to the roads centerline or laydown direction. These can
be a result of both road fatigue, reflective cracking, and/or poor joint construction. Joints
are generally the least dense areas of a road.
● Transverse cracks are single cracks perpendicular to the pavement’s centerline or
laydown direction. Transverse cracks can be caused by reflective cracks from an
underlying layer, daily temperature cycles, and poor construction due to improper
operation of the paver.
● Edge Cracks travel along the inside edge of a pavement surface within one or two feet.
The most common cause for this type of crack is poor drainage conditions and lack of
support at the pavement edge. As a result, underlying base materials settle and become
weakened. Heavy vegetation along the pavement edge and heavy traffic can also be the
instigator of edge cracking.
● Joint Reflection Cracks occur directly over the underlying rigid pavement joints. Joint
reflection cracking does not include reflection cracks that occur away from an underlying
joint or from any other type of base (e.g., cement or lime stabilized).
Bridges
● A combination of issues - The top reason bridges fail is a mix of factors that, if they
happened individually, would not cause a bridge to collapse. However, when they take
place all at once, they result in devastating consequences. For example, severe winds may
not be enough to cause a structure to come down. However, when they hit a bridge that’s
structurally too rigid to withstand them, it leads to failure.
● Infrastructure Issues - According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, bridges
in the United States earn a mediocre C+ rating for maintenance and safety. The group
reports that one out of every nine bridges in the country is considered structurally
deficient, and the average age of bridges in the U.S. is more than 42 years old. The age
and condition of bridges is a contributing factor to many recent collapses.
● Accidents - Whether it’s a truck hitting a support post, a train falling off the tracks or a
boat colliding into a foundation, accidents are one of the leading reasons bridges are
damaged or come down. Bridge engineers must plan for all types of incidents, including
those caused by vehicles that exist today and ones like driverless cars, larger ocean
tankers, and cruise ships, along with pilotless drones that could impact bridges in the near
and distant future.
● Floods - Today’s changing climate and the extreme weather events associated with it are
causing more flood-related damage to bridges. Most of this damage isn’t from water
alone. During a flood, rivers pick up debris, such as trees and buildings, and push it
forcefully against bridges, causing their foundations to wash away and structural
elements to break apart.
● Unexpected Events - When it comes to bridge construction, engineers simply don’t know
what they don’t know. Countless bridge incidents happen because of unanticipated
structural or design-related issues.
● Construction Incidents - Some bridges never make it to completion. They fail during
construction. A lesson learned from these incidents is that it’s just as important for
designers and engineers to plan all aspects of bridge construction step by step, analyzing
the impact new phases will have on previous ones.
Tunnels
● Ground Collapse Near The Tunnel Portal - The reason for the collapse of the ground
near the tunnel portal is the excessive build-up of pore water pressure, which could be
due to heavy rainfall.
● Wrapping and Twisting of Tunnel Support System - Due to the continuous ingress of
water to the bottom of the tunnel portal, the bearing capacity of ground soil near the
portal decreases, which causes the concrete lining to settle into the ground and therefore
leads to the wrapping and twisting of the tunnel support system.
● Improper Blasting Techniques - If the blasting is not designed correctly, then it can lead
to the squeezing and bursting of the rock mass, which may eventually lead to the
complete collapse of the tunnel.
● Cavity Formation - After the conclusion of the blasting process, cavities may generate
in the surrounding rock mass. If the assessment of cavities in the alignment of the tunnel
is not worked out before the advancement of each and every trail, then it can lead to the
failure of the tunnel near the advancement portal, which consequently may increase the
accident rate.
● Presence of Faults and Fracture Zones - Due to the blasting technique, the faults and
fractures get loosened, and therefore the loosened rock mass creates an excessive shear
force on the periphery of the existing tunnel, which can cause shear failure and cracks
into the concrete lining.
● Heaving - After the commencement of the tunnel service, if swelling clay soil is
observed above the tunnel crown, it will be subjected to hydrothermal pressure, which in
turn, can cause an increase in the volume of soil particles, and therefore causing heaving
at the base of the pavement surface.
MAINTENANCE

Roads

There are 3 types of road maintenance: Emergency Maintenance, Reactive Maintenance, and
Preventative Road Maintenance.

● Emergency Maintenance - Emergency road maintenance is, as its name suggests, a form
of road maintenance undertaken in an emergency. It is normally required should
something catastrophic happen that has an immediate and tangible impact on the flow of
traffic or safety of road uses
● Reactice Maintenance - The most common form of reactive road maintenance is pothole
repair. As we’ve written about previously, potholes form gradually over time, where road
surfacing has cracked and eroded to form a depression or hollow on the roadway. In order
to fix this, permanent pothole repair is required.
● Preventative Road Maintenance - Preventative road maintenance involves planning in
order to avoid reactive road maintenance where possible. It means that roads are regularly
inspected for damage and preventative repairs are carried out to avoid accidents or more
extensive work in the future.

Bridges

There are two types of Bridge Maintenance:

● Prevention is about keeping bridges from developing issues.

● Preservation focuses more on fixing or repairing problems.
 There are a few things that are done to preserve bridges include:

● Washing and cleaning

● Sealing deck joints
● Clearing drainage areas
● Sealing cracks
● Painting exposed elements
● Removing trash and other debris
● Protecting against scour
● Lubricating bearings

There are two other bridge maintenance categories that are hybrids of those outlined
above:

1. Cyclical preventative maintenance activities - Performed on a pre-determined

schedule, to preserve existing bridge conditions and keep them from getting
worse.
○ Wash and clean decking or the entire bridge: One or two years.
○ Lubricate bearings: Two to four years.
○ Seal and waterproof concrete decking: Three to five years.
○ Zone coat steel beams and girder ends: 10 to 15 years.
○ Install deck overlay on concrete decks: Approximately every 10 to 20 years,
depending on usage and wear and tear.
2. Condition-based preventative maintenance activities - Happen only when
issues are identified during bridge inspections. This type of maintenance is
usually done on bridges that are in basically good to fair shape. Some typical
condition-based preventive maintenance activities include sealing and replacing
leaking joints; installing deck overlays, cathodic protection systems, and scour
countermeasures; and painting and sealing steel structural elements.
Tunnels

● Preventive maintenance is conducted to reduce the likelihood of failure and to extend

the service life of components. An optimized maintenance approach focuses on various
preventative maintenance schemes such as cyclical, conditional, and predictive-based
methods. With cyclical methods, the maintenance is performed at pre-determined
intervals. This approach is common when there is an established service-life.
● On-demand maintenance is sometimes referred to as corrective maintenance. This type
of maintenance is the most effective strategy against difficult-to-predict occurrences such
as damage from vehicle impacts, sudden equipment malfunctions, or unanticipated tunnel
system failure. Contingency plans should be developed in advance to facilitate the repair
process and return the tunnel to service

Types of Maintenance Activities

● Removing Debris, Snow, and Ice

● Tunnel Washing
● Servicing Vehicles and Equipment
● Drainage Inlets and Pipes
● Luminaire Cleaning and Replacement
● Pavement Markings and Signs
REHABILITATION

Roads

● Replacing the Pavement - A standard road rehabilitation procedure. The challenge is to

ensure that only the damaged layers of the road structure are removed – while
simultaneously avoiding traffic disruptions. Under these conditions, cold milling is the
only viable option for many construction projects.
● Fine Milling - The fine milling process removes the old failing asphalt surface but then
refurbishes the largely solid original concrete road beneath.
● Asphalt Recycling - Asphalt chunks or millings are mixed in an asphalt recycler (or
reclaimer) along with some water and additives. For hot mix asphalt, the mixture is
tumbled and heated for approximately 20 minutes before it is ready for use.
● Small Surface Repairs - Small milling machines are particularly suitable for
professionally repairing roads, bike paths, and sidewalks in order to keep them in good
condition over a long period of time. This is a more cost-effective alternative to patching,
which may be quick to complete, but is really only a temporary solution.
Bridges

● Joint Repair and Replacement - Expansion joints need to be repaired or replaced first
to extend the lifespan of a bridge. If left unattended to, failing joints can result in
additional damage to the bridge substructure and increased spalling.
● Structural Steel Rehabilitation - Steel rehabilitation and repairs consist of heat
straightening of bridge girders and members if a bridge attains impact damage. Welding
repairs, bridge bearing replacement and resetting, as well as emergency structural repairs
and mitigation may be necessary depending on the assessment and diagnosis.
● Substructure Replacement - Loss of bearing capacity occurs when footings and pilings
become exposed upon erosion, scour, and other damaging processes like the cycle of
wetting and drying. Deteriorating concrete on a bridge’s pier and abutment should be
assessed to determine if the concrete is sound or if rehabilitation of the substructure is
needed.
● Superstructure Replacement - It is also necessary to determine structural integrity and
traffic restrictions if needed. It may be necessary to replace the superstructure with a
concrete slab if girder spacings are less than ideal or if the bridge requires extensive
redecking.
● Widening and Strengthening - Deck widening can support the rehabilitation of a
structure if the existing deck is adequate (structurally sound) and if the existing width is
more than half of the total new width. The existing deck should be replaced if more than
20% is spalled or delaminated.
● Deck Rehabilitation - The application of overlays limits the infiltration of deicing
chemicals and weather elements. There are several overlay methods that are used in
preservation and rehabilitation. Before the application of an overlay, the bridge deck must
be prepared for proper bonding.
Tunnels

● Concrete Repairs and Restoration - Post-tension, cast-in-place, and pre-cast structural

repairs are commonly conducted on overhead, vertical, and horizontal damaged concrete
sites. These methods can be used across a wide range of industries, including commercial
buildings, bridges, tunnels, plaza decks, stadiums, parking structures, water treatment
plants, and more.
● Waterproofing Concrete - Left untreated, water can cause deeply rooted issues in
concrete, necessitating a larger scaled restoration or repair solution. Employing the
application of suitable coatings to exposed surfaces, utilizing an admixture, or treated
concrete to expertly waterproof concrete structures.
● Epoxy and Urethane Injection - One of the main advantages of epoxy is its strength,
which is typically stronger than concrete. Epoxy is frequently used to restore structural
strength and weld the cracks back together. Urethane injections react with the moisture
inside the concrete to create foam and expand inside the crack filling the void. This
method is ideal for crack repair and waterproofing, although it does not add structural
strength.