Quality Assurance Essentials and Case Studies for Accelerated Bridge Construction

ABC is defined as bridge construction that uses innovative planning, design, materials, and construction methods in a safe and cost-effective manner to reduce the onsite construction time that occurs when building new bridges or replacing and rehabilitating existing bridges quickly. Conventional construction methods involve onsite activities that are time consuming and weather dependent. Nevertheless, speed is the primary difference between ABC and conventional bridge construction, but ABC can introduce other unique challenges such as: shipping and handling of large/irregular prefabricated elements, special lifting/erecting and element "fit-up" in the field, all of which could have special QA requirements. There are three particular ABC technologies being promoted under EDC-2 which are: Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (PBES), Slide-In Bridge Construction (SIBC), and Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil - Integrated Bridge System (GRS-IBS). ABC is a paradigm shift in the project planning and procurement approach where the need to minimize mobility impacts which occur due to onsite construction activities are elevated to a higher priority. Conventional bridge construction is bridge construction that does not significantly reduce the onsite construction time that is needed to build, replace, or rehabilitate a single, or group of bridge projects.