PBES Innovative Projects

Prefabricated bridge elements and systems offer bridge designers and contractors significant advantages in terms of construction time, safety, environmental impact, constructibility, and cost.

Minimize traffic impacts of bridge construction projects

Using prefabricated bridge elements and systems means that time-consuming formwork construction, curing, and other tasks associated with fabrication can be done off-site in a controlled environment without affecting traffic. Here are examples of US bridge projects that reduced traffic disruption by using prefabricated bridge elements and systems.

Improve construction zone safety

Because prefabrication moves off-site so much of the preparation work for bridge construction, the amount time that workers are required to operate on-site, frequently in or near traffic or at elevations or over water, is greatly diminished. Job site constraints such as nearby power lines are minimized when workers can complete most of their construction off-site. Here are examples of US bridge projects that improved construction zone safety by using prefabricated bridge elements and systems.

Make construction less disruptive for the environment

Using prefabricated substructure elements reduces the amount of heavy equipment required and the amount of time required on-site for heavy equipment. Keeping equipment out of sensitive environments is less disruptive for those environments. Here are examples of US bridge projects that improved their environmental sensitivity by using prefabricated bridge elements and systems.

Make bridge designs more constructible

Many job sites impose difficult constraints on the constructibility of bridge designs: heavy traffic on an interstate highway that runs under a neighborhood bridge, difficult elevations, long stretches over water, restricted work areas due to adjacent stores or other facilities. Using prefabricated bridge elements and systems relieves such constructibility pressures. Here are examples of US bridge projects that improved their constructibility by using prefabricated bridge elements and systems.

Increase quality and lower life-cycle costs

Prefabricating elements and systems takes them out of the critical path of the project schedule: work can be done ahead of time, using as much time as necessary, in a controlled environment. This reduces dependence on weather and increases control of quality of resulting elements and systems. All projects that use prefabricated bridge elements and systems increase the quality of their structure; most also lower life-cycle costs.