STRUCTURAL AND MATERIAL DAMAGE TO CONCRETE HIGHWAY BRIDGE DECKS IN SAUDI ARABIA. BRIDGE MANAGEMENT. INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, ASSESSMENT AND REPAIR. PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BRIDGE MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF SURREY, GUILDFORD, MARCH 28-30, 1990

A seemingly large number of concrete highway bridges in Saudi Arabia are suffering signs of cracking, deterioration and, in some cases, localized failures to their deck slabs. Several reasons are believed to have contributed to these phenomena, including low quality materials, poor construction practices, lack of control over vehicular loads and the severe environmental factors. A research programme has been initiated to categorize the types of damage to bridge decks and to identify the prevailing causal factors. Based on detailed in-situ and laboratory investigation of several defective bridge decks around the kingdom, damage may be broadly classified into (i) structural damage resulting from overloading and (ii) material damage resulting from environmental impact on the durability of concrete. This paper presents a typical bridge case study for each type of damage. Each case study involves a detailed description of damage inflicted on the bridge deck, along with the investigative approach adopted by the authors to determine the major causal factors. The paper is concluded by a 'damage likelihood chart' for the various types of bridge decks around the kingdom. The chart accounts for variations in the bridge geometry as well as its geographic location.(A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 830553.