UHPFRC As A Material For Bridge Construction – Are we making the most of our opportunities?

The latest issue of Concrete In Australia, features as the cover story the work of CIES’s Professor Stephen Foster and his Research Colleague Dr Yen Lei Voo with the thought provoking headline “UHPFRC as a material for bridge construction: are we making the most of our opportunities”. Concrete In Australia is the Concrete Institute of Australia’s keystone quarterly publication, with each issue containing a feature topic.

Professor Foster writes: “With the opening of Shepherd’s Gully Bridge near Newcastle, Australia was at the lead of industrialisation of the latest in research in cementitious materials technology and in the utilisation of ultra-high performance concrete for road bridges – ten years ahead, not one more bridge has been constructed. The question that should be asked is: “where will we be in 2025”? In contrast, based on research begun in Australia and with Australian research training, Malaysian engineers built their first UHPC bridge in 2010; in the short time since, 40 more bridges, road and pedestrian, have been built. Similarly in other parts of Asia (particularly Japan) and in Europe (particularly France) some remarkable structures are being developed utilising UHPC technology.

In 2005 the German Government, through the German Research Foundation, invested €12 million (A$16.7) in a programme that involved 34 research projects at more than 20 research institutes. Similarly, in 2007 the Korean Institute of Construction Technology (KICT) invested WON$12 billion ($A14 million) into research into UHPC for cable-stayed bridges in their Super 200 program. The US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began investigating the use of UHPC in 2001, with the first structure, the 33 metre Mars Hill road bridge in Iowa, constructed in 2006. This compares to a general lack of investment in cementitious materials technology research throughout Australia by government, industry and, indeed, universities. Will we be looking for inspiration from overseas for the years ahead; will again Australia be at the lead or remain followers? It is time that that a new paradigm is found that unlocks the talent invested in Australian research institutions and brings the benefit more directly to Australian industry and the Australian economy.

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