HPC Repeat Success in New Hampshire

This paper describes how the success of New Hampshire’s first high performance concrete (HPC) bridge—Route 104 in Bristol—made the decision to proceed with the next HPC bridge an easy choice. Actually, during New Hampshire’s early involvement in HPC, it was planned to make the second project serve as an experimental control to the Route 104 HPC bridge. However, soon after completion of the Route 104 bridge, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) determined it would be better to look forward, rather than revert back to the conventional deck and girder concrete construction. The goal, therefore, was to build on the results of the Route 104 bridge, making adjustments where problems had occurred, and solidifying where successes had been achieved. The second HPC bridge, also located in Bristol, carries NH Route 3A over the Newfound River and is about one mile from the Route 104 bridge. The new bridge is a 60-ft (18.3-m) long simple span structure that is 30 ft (9.1 m) from curb to curb with one 5-ft (1.52-m) wide sidewalk. The superstructure consists of 3-1/2-in. (90-mm) thick precast concrete deck panels with a 5-1/2-in. (140-mm) thick cast-in-place (CIP) concrete deck, and four precast, prestressed concrete New England bulb-tee (NEBT) 1000 HPC girders.