Case Study of a High-Performance Concrete Bridge in Tennessee

This paper presents a case study on a high-performance concrete (HPC) bridge in Tennessee. The bridge is a twin bridge with high-strength concrete (HSC) beams in one bridge lane and normal-strength concrete (NSC) beams in the other bridge lane. The compressive strength of HSC and NSC were 92 and 49 MPa, respectively. The bridge was instrumented for strains and temperatures in precast beams, cast-in-place decks, and diaphragms during various construction stages. Test results presented in this paper include temperature changes in the concrete, time-dependent strains and cambers of precast HSC and NSC beams, and strain changes of deck and diaphragm. It was observed that the HSC members exhibited rapidly developed early-age creep and shrinkage strains, rapidly developed time-dependent cambers, and apparent differential shrinkage relative to the deck concrete. Recommendations for design and construction of HSC bridges are also presented in the paper.