Fibre reinforced polymer composite short span bridges: Are they viable?

This paper summarises an investigation into the cost of designing and constructing a short span rural bridge from polymer composite (PC) material. Actual cost of a super T beam concrete bridge, including design, construction and life-time maintenance, is compared with the estimated price of an equivalent PC bridge. Results show material and labour constitute the majority of cost and was an order of magnitude higher than for the concrete structure. Advantages of using polymer composites in bridge construction were found to be corrosion resistance, low density and potential savings in installation time. Disadvantages were found to be cost of construction, depth of sections required, uncertainty in design life and lack of design load, material and section property tables. The paper proposes that if polymer composites are to ever permeate civil engineering infrastructure, plastics manufacturers must begin directing research funds towards significantly reducing material costs and developing structural design guides.