Advanced methods for the inside protection against corrosion and the accessibility of bridges with advanced box-girder design

摘要

Steel- and composite bridges with single-or multi-cell box girder designs have succeeded during the last decades because these bridge types show important technical and economical advantages. Furthermore they could offer excellent conditions for the inspection and maintenance of the outside of the structure due to their plain and closed steel surfaces. In order to secure proper protection against corrosion of the inside of the box girders as well and to enable a good accessibility for reasons of inspection and maintenance, there has usually been applied a painting system consisting of three coats and there have been installed permanent gangways and/or movable inspection gantries inside the box girders.Both measures naturally imply relatively high costs both for the original implementation and the running inspection and maintenance of the inside of the box girders. As a consequence, nowadays has been made every effort to develop advanced cross section designs on the one hand and to implement progressive methods for the inside protection against corrosion on the other hand which could fit in perfectly to these new cross sections. This paper will describe the new developments in the field of inside protection against corrosion in connection with advanced bridge designs.