Abstract
The research initiative to be described relates to the concern of the current Mexican transportation agencies about infrastructure integrity particularly in the sector of highway bridges. We report analytical and field work on corrosion diagnosis, solution development, and monitoring of a set of bridges representative of past and emerging construction technologies under the scope of corrosion engineering in tropical environments. We consider three reinforced concrete bridges, two of which are cable-stayed systems. Diagnostic procedures were applied on piles as well as other structural components involving field visual inspections as well as concrete resistivity, impact strength, and reinforcing steel–concrete electrolyte half cell potentials. Age and sea coast proximity were two important factors affecting the reinforced concrete integrity. The oldest bridge over seawater exhibited a significant need for attention and repair. A CP (cathodic protection) system was installed including a remote monitoring system to survey rebar concrete potential performance and to show the effectiveness of the CP solution. In the diagnosis, a cable stayed bridge near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico exhibited some deleterious effects of corrosion of reinforcing bars in the visual inspection as well as the half cell potentials, concrete resistivity, and impact strength.
