County Route 55 – Brasher, NY
An innovative glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) panel deck was introduced to a replacement bridge span carrying CR55 over Deer Creek in Brasher (North Lawrence), NY. Given the inherent advantages regarding reslience to traditional forms of deterioration in the northeastern U.S. such as corrosion, such composite elements are increasingly finding favor in civil infrastructure applications. However, their performance has yet to be as well investigated as traditional bridge construction materials that have witnessed decades worth of experimental and analytical studies. The CR55 bridge is a 60ft span GFRP deck on five W30x235 steel girder supported by elastomeric bearings and cast into the gravity abutments in an integral abument design.
This case study encompassed successive days of experimental testing. On the first day, strain transducers d were applied for diagnostic load testing with a truck of known axle weight and positioning. The second day of testing utilized thirty dual-axis accelerometers distributed both on the primary girders as well as on the FRP panels for global and local modal analysis.
