The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge on I-495, the Capital Beltway, crosses the Potomac River south of Washington, D.C.
In 1974–75 a program for detecting the premature deterioration of reinforced concrete highway bridge decks as a result of using deicing salts became available for demonstration. It was a two-part project, the initial project being a series of evaluation techniques to determine the degree of damage already occurring in the bridge deck and the second project demonstrated an electrical method to stop the corrosion of reinforcing steel occurring in the bridge deck.
Erosion along highway rights-of-way, particularly at major drainage structures, has presented the highway engineer with numerous design, construction, and maintenance problems. These problems exist because the construction of a highway system often disrupts, and in many instances alters, natural drainage networks. This disruption and alteration generally results in high velocity flow within highway drainage structures. While this is desirable from the standpoint of carrying large volumes of runoff in relatively small structures, it frequently leads to serious erosion problems. A demonstration project was established to educate and train highway engineers on the proper selection and design of a broad range of flow control devices which serve to dissipate the hydraulic energy.
Two other demonstration projects expected to benefit State agencies in cost-effectiveness planning are the demonstration of noise measurement techniques, equipment systems, data interpretation, and the demonstration of air quality monitoring devices. By the requirements of the 1970 Federal-Aid Highway Act, noise level standards and air quality guidelines were developed. The demonstration projects make known to the State agencies the equipment available to make necessary measurements, techniques for analyzing the data and projecting the impact of planned construction projects, and to assist the States in selecting the equipment suitable to their particular needs based on cost/benefit.
The Demonstration Projects Program attempts to touch on every aspect of concern within the highway industry. In addition to the five projects above, the Demonstration Program included demonstrations on safety (High Performance and Energy Absorbing Bridge Rails), waste materials (Discarded Tires in Highway Construction), conservation of natural resources (Recycling Asphalt Pavements), public education (Highway Photomontage) to translate the technical information of highway planning and design so that the community can become knowledgeably involved, design (Automated Design System), and many other features, concepts and techniques.
The success of any program is its measure of effectiveness in terms of real world results. Just as the object lesson roads of the early days of the Federal Highway Administration broadcast the knowledge available and how to do it with the materials at hand for cost/benefit, so also is the purpose of today’s Demonstration Projects Program. The long-range objective of both efforts is a more economical environmentally acceptable transportation system for the good of the country.
516
