Ultra High-Performance Concrete Case Study
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Performance Concrete > Jakway Park Bridge
Innovative Concrete Bridge Wins Quality Initiative
Structure Award
 The
Jakway Park Bridge in Buchanan County, Iowa, has earned the right
to be called innovative. It is the first North American highway
bridge built with a new generation of ultra-high performance concrete
(UHPC) PI-girders, the first highway bridge to incorporate UHPC
batched in a ready-mix concrete truck, and only the third in North
America built with UHPC girders.
The project received an "Iowa Quality Initiative Structures
Research Merit Award" from the Associated General Contractors
of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Lafarge's ultra-high performance concrete, "Ductal®",
was used for the project (also known as Reactive Powder Concrete).
The concrete provides a combination of superior properties including
ductility, durability, and strength. The compressive strength of
the beams in the bridge was 21,500 psi (final).
 This
three-span bridge is 112 ft 4 in. long and 24 ft 3 in. wide. The
UHPC center span is 51 ft 2 in. It includes three precast, prestressed
UHPC PI-girders and a cast-in-place slab. The girders are called
“PI”-girders because their cross-section resembles the
Greek letter “pi”.
Funding was granted through the TEA-21 Innovative
Bridge Construction Program, managed by the Federal Highway Administration,
to construct a highway bridge with an optimized UHPC PI-girder section.
The bridge opened to traffic on November 26, 2008 and an official
ribbon cutting ceremony took place on April 15, 2009.
Click here for a Q&A about
curing the beams
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