West Virginia Studies of Epoxy-Coated Bars

West Virginia Studies of Epoxy-Coated Bars
Resource Types
Publication
Research,

In 2009, the Epoxy Interest Group of CRSI (EIG) funded studies of bridge decks in West Virginia that contained epoxycoated reinforcing steel. This investigation focused on 33 decks, built in the mid-1970’s and surveyed by WVDOT in 1993. Evaluation of these structures is viewed as important as this study provided one of the few where side-by-side comparisons could be made between black and epoxy-coated bars. The black bar decks were overlaid or otherwise rehabilitated at ages from 18 to 21 years to address deterioration of the deck surface. By comparison none of the decks containing epoxy-coated reinforcing steel had been repaired due to corrosion-induced deterioration and these decks have reached ages of 33 to 35 years. Since the decks containing epoxy-coated reinforcing steel have shown little deterioration to date, the true service life extension is likely much greater.