The PEER-Bridge Program will perform research in seven topic areas as specified below.
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Maintenance/Sustainability
Objectives:Develop cost effective methods for assessing the structural health of a bridge. Create repair techniques to prolong a bridge’s functional life. Assess innovative design and material options that will minimize life-cycle costs. -
New Materials
Objectives: Perform evaluation and trial application of new construction materials such as high strength reinforcing steel, stainless steel, ultra-high-performance concrete, light-weight concrete, and composite materials.
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Bridge Modeling & Analysis
Objective: Develop improved methods for assessing structural demand and performance.
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Accelerated Bridge Construction
Objective: Develop techniques and structural systems that increase the speed of construction and minimize disruption to the traveling public.
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Performance Based Earthquake Engineering (PBEE)/Bridge and System Reliability
Objectives: Develop bridge design methods that include seismic performance targets at different hazard levels. Investigate how different performance targets impact the performance of the transportation network following a major earthquake.
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Foundations & Walls
Objective: Improve the geotechnical design of bridge foundations and retaining walls to improve performance and cost efficiency.
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Intelligent Design Tools/Bridge Design Aids
Objective: Develop new tools and methods that take advantage of artificial intelligence to accelerate the bridge design process.