A bridge to the future

How can governments replace bridges and other aging infrastructure while facing tighter budgets and stronger economic headwinds than ever before? Today, that’s easier said and done thanks to composite arches made with a combination of our Derakane™ resin and carbon fiber tubes are used in the Bridge-in-a-Backpack* technology developed with Ashland’s support at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine, USA.

It’s called a Bridge-in-a-Backpack because the carbon-fiber tubes used to make the arches can be folded up and are light enough to be toted around in a backpack. After being cut to size, they're transported to the construction site, inflated and infused with Derakane resin. After the resin cures, which takes just a few hours, the tubes are put in place and anchored. It takes about an hour to fill the harder-than-steel tubes with concrete. The framework is covered with a deck, more concrete and dirt, and then it’s ready for the pavers.

As economies of scale are reached, bridges built this way are expected to cost about 30 percent less, with shorter construction time. The carbon fiber tubes are expected to have a far longer life span than steel. Better yet, the carbon footprint from this type of construction is about 30 percent less than current methods.

Six bridges have been installed in the New England region of the United States and the Maine state legislature has mandated that no less than 10 percent of all new bridges in the state have the same design. The technology also is expected to be used in construction of sites for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Each of the carbon fiber tubes was infused with Derakane resin, cured, then filled with concrete.