Reinforced Concrete Bridge Protection in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Of the 7700 road bridges in Northern Ireland, approximately 1300 are of reinforced concrete construction. Some of these date back to the early years of this century but many large reinforced concrete bridges were constructed in the 1960s and early 1970s during the development of our motorway system. Since 1973 all of these bridges have been maintained by the Roads Service of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In 1987 the DoE (NI) commissioned the Civil Engineering Department of the Queen’s University of Belfast to investigate the current condition of the bridges and to make recommendations on a programme for protective measures. This has concentrated on surface treatments and on cathodic protection. It is planned that a coordinated maintenance management strategy will result from this work.