DISCUSSION

The literature that was reviewed clearly indicates that the high-performance reinforcement types identified outperform black bar from a corrosion-resistance perspective in bridge structure service. A complicating aspect of high-performance reinforcement, unlike the case of black bar, is that numerous types with a broad range properties are available. Because enhanced corrosion performance depends primarily on the concentration of relatively costly alloying elements such as Cr and Mo and to a lesser extent upon surface treatment, the better performers are the most expensive. The most logical approach is to select the alternative that will perform satisfactorily for the design life at the lowest life cycle cost. However, accomplishing this requires knowing the long-term performance of candidate reinforcement types; in other words, being able to anticipate the design life of the bridge in question, which can be 75-100 years. Presently, such information can only be obtained from accelerated, short-term tests, but there is no reliable correlation between these results and long-term performance.

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