Condition survey of continuous bridge decks

A field survey was conducted to evaluate the performances of Texas highway bridges with continuous decks and to compare those performances with comparable bridges with noncontinuous decks. The visual inspections were geographically distributed over the entire state to account for different climatic conditions found in the state. Bridges with continuous steel girders, reinforced concrete pan formed girded, prestressed concrete simple girders, and prestressed concrete girders made continuous for live load made up the sample of 257 bridges. The most common defects found are: (1) transverse deck cracks, (2) longitudinal cracks in pan formed girder bridges, (3) spalls and cracks at ends of closure pours in prestressed concrete girders made continuous for live loads, (4) bent cap and beam end spalls in simple pan formed girder bridges, and (5) damaged joint seals in simple spans. Less common are (1) deicing salt damage over bents in continuous slabs and (2) cracks at dowel ends of doweled pan formed girder bridges. It is concluded that the service lives of continuous deck and simple deck bridges should be comparable if all are well maintained and if the steel is protected from deicing salt. It is recommended that special precautions be made to protect reinforcing steel in cracked regions over bents.