Self-Consolidating Concrete in Virginia Department of Transportation’s Bridge Structures

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) incorporates innovative materials into its concrete structures to ensure durable and cost-effective infrastructure. However, poor consolidation can reduce the durability of VDOT concrete structures because it leads to unacceptable amounts of voids in hardened concrete that increase its permeability and reduces its strength. Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) that has high flow rates and the ability to move through congested reinforcement is a new addition to VDOT concretes; it facilitates placement, minimizes consolidation problems, and improves structure longevity. This paper summarizes VDOT's use of SCC in bridge structures both in precast and castin- place applications. In precast applications, beams were fabricated with normalweight and lightweight SCC. In cast-in-place applications, drilled shafts, pier caps, and substructure repairs were cast with normalweight SCC. Summaries of field applications by VDOT as well as lessons learned through implementation are included in the paper.