Fiber-reinforced polymer composites, high-performance concrete and other innovative materials and technologies appear to be fulfilling their promise to reduce infrastructure maintenance and life-cycle costs, and cut construction time, according to a recently released Transportation Research Board consensus study.
Two separate failures of three cantilevered flanges of three precast, prestressed-concrete double-T parking-deck sections—reinforced with a non-code-compliant, high-strength carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer grid—are putting the spotlight on the structural safety of corrosion-resistant FRP grids for transverse reinforcement of double-Ts.