A “Report on Performance of Uncoated Weathering Steel (UWS) Highway Bridges Throughout the United States” recently published by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) concludes that UWS bridges perform well in most cases and, considering the economic and environmental benefits, continued or increased use of UWS is regarded as sound engineering practice.
A presentation on the paper at TRB’s recent Annual Meeting reported that (1) the superstructure condition ratings of the majority of UWS bridges are classified as excellent or very good, based on the national criteria for these qualitative descriptors and (2) comparing these ratings of UWS bridges and other steel bridges within representative agencies while accounting for differences in ages of the various populations showed that UWS displays better or similar performance relative to other steel bridges.
The study was performed by the University of Delaware and funded by the Federal Highway Administration. The paper (number 14-1139) is available for download, along with all other papers presented at the meeting, at the 2014 Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers.