Surveys have indicated that between 30% and 40% of all bridges in North America are inrnurgent need of replacement or rehabilitation. New materials such as HPC and FRP could play a major rolernin the renewal of North America’s bridges. Despite the potential benefits from the use of these materials,rnmost designers and precasters are still reluctant to use them. This may be due to the increased initial costrnand quality control required to produce these materials. It is unlikely that HPC and FRP will gain widernacceptance without a clear economic incentive. This paper presents a rigorous and systematic procedurernusing optimization techniques for the design of slab-on-girder bridges. The procedure is used to developrnan optimization system that can be utilized to carry out cost effectiveness studies of the use of HPC andrnFRP prestressing tendons in the production of standard CPCI I-girders, and to develop preliminary designrncharts according to the CHBDC provisions.
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