FRP APPLICATIONS IN LOW-DISTURBANCE, SUSTAINABLE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Paper in proceeding, 2012

The on-going European project PANTURA (www.pantura-project.eu) is dealing with new methods, tools and techniques for building, maintaining and improving bridges in urban environments in an efficient, sustainable way with a minimum of disturbance for inhabitants and disruption of mobility. The project has a multidisciplinary character and includes construction processes, newly developed IT tools, a new, integrated design and engineering solutions for flexible off- and on-site fabrication, construction techniques and on-site assembly methods and the rehabilitation and strengthening of old bridges. The work is conducted based on identified and evaluated indicators, best practices and benchmarking of assessment tools. The presented results are partly related to development of set of indicators and a tool to help decision makers to choose sustainable bridge concepts; and partly related to FRP application as a possible sustainable solution. An example is based on the case study FRP bridge in La Palma. It is shown that FRP materials are very well suited as a reinforcement material to strengthen existing bridges. MCDA tool is a good method to compare various materials for off- and on-site industrial fabrication of new bridges and FRP offers sustainable solutions and many advantages.