FRP used to update historic 80-year-old bridge

Composite Advantage (Dayton, OH, US) announced July 12 its FiberSPAN bridge deck has been used to rebuild Rugg Bridge on Route 57 in Sandisfield, MA, US, a pony truss bridge that has been in service since 1938. A steel grid/concrete deck weighing 60 lb per ft² created a dead load that was too heavy for the aged structure. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT, Boston, MA, US) chose Composite Advantage’s FiberSPAN fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite decking based on its track record with another state project – the Haverhill’s Rocks Village vehicle bridge, which was rehabilitated in 2013. Inspections of the Haverhill’s Rocks Village bridge since the deck’s installation have found panel-to-panel joints, span joints and wear surface in like new condition.

Rugg Bridge totals 123' long with longitudinal steel stringers spaced 6' 2" on center. Its FiberSPAN deck panels are 25' 11" wide and 10' long with a thickness of 7 ⁷/₈". The FRP deck and its wear surface, a black Matacryl (aluminum oxide), weighs just 23 lb per ft². Bolted shear studs connect deck panels to steel stringers and floor beams. Specifications include AASHTO HS-20 vehicle plus impact loading, a 0.9 environmental durability factor, L/500 maximum deflection requirement, a dead load with bending strain/shear strain maximum of 10% and a service load plus dead load with bending strain/shear strain maximum of 20%.

The short span opened just before Memorial Day weekend.