Coating Performance and Maintenance Strategy for Steel Bridges

A variety of coatings are available for protecting steel bridges from corrosion. These range from liquid applied paint coatings to metallic zinc coatings, and increasingly, paint in combination with metallic zinc as a duplex coating. The overall life cycle cost of a steel bridge will depend on the durability of the coating used, the corrosive environment, and the amount and type of maintenance required. Steel has a high carbon footprint, so extending the lives of steel bridges also reduces costs to the environment. The performance of various corrosion protection coatings combined with alternate maintenance strategies will be discussed in terms of lowest life cycle cost and carbon footprint for steel bridges.