PRECAST BRIDGE BUILDING CUTS COSTS

This article describes Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's use of precast bridge building. Concrete bridge beams can now be cast ahead of time, especially during the winter months, and later anchored into place at the actual site of the bridge replacement. In PennDOT's six-county district one region, precasting bridge components is widely used as a supplement to a major statewide bridge building initiative. Having the sections already cast and the concrete cured and ready to be set into place also shortens the time roads have to be closed for bridge replacement by getting a head start on a job that formerly was handled on the project site. Building bridge components inside also means not contending with weather and allowing for better control over the curing of concrete.