Foundation Characterization Program (FCP): TechBrief No. 1 - Workshop Report on The Reuse of Bridge Foundations

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Introduction

This TechBrief presents the results of a workshop held at the 2014 Transportation Research Board (TRB) 93rd annual meeting on the reuse of bridge foundations. The workshop is the continuation of ongoing effort by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to identify research and development needs with respect to foundation characterization program (FCP). This program includes the development and/or evaluation of new and existing methodologies for characterizing existing bridge foundations for the determination of unknown geometry, material properties, integrity, and load-carrying capacity.

The transportation system in the United States includes more than 600,000 bridges built for grade separation, interchange configurations, and crossings over natural barriers such as rivers. The operation and functionality of the highway network depends on the performance of these structures. As of December 2012, the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) included 607,380 structures (bridges and culverts) with a span greater than 20 ft (6 m).⁽¹⁾ Of those structures, 36,076 bridges over waterways (riverine and tidal) are identified as having unknown foundations. The term “unknown foundation” has been associated with the population of existing bridges over waterways that cannot be evaluated for hydraulic vulnerability related to scour. The number of bridges over land with unknown foundations, however, is not known because this qualifier is not a reportable item in the NBI.