Durability and service life of concrete bridges

In Croatia, as in most other countries, concrete bridges, as well as other concrete structures, play important role in every day life of inhabitants as well as a very important role for productivity of society. It was always presumed that concrete as a material and concrete structures were long lasting structures with expected service life of at least 100 years. Several recent scientific researches which were conducted in cooperation of Civil engineering Institute of Croatia and Faculty of Civil Engineering from Zagreb, have shown these theories of everlasting concrete structures, wrong. There are a growing number of deteriorating concrete structures all around us, influencing not only productivity and economy of society, but with a great impact on resources, environment and human safety as well. In these scientific researches several concrete structures of the same type were examined, aging from 30 to 2 years. This paper will show some results of above mentioned scientific researches conducted on site as well as in laboratories, with some recommendations for prolongation of service life of concrete bridges.