Development and application of FASSTbridge solution to Jarama bridge (fast and effective solution for steel bridges lifetime extension)

One of the goals of sustainable development applied to bridge infrastructure is to provide bridge owners with strengthening solutions that may lead to an increase of existing structures service life. In the case of steel bridges, the assessment of the remaining service life is most often linked to the determination of the structural deterioration caused by corrosion and fatigue. Damage caused by fatigue is very difficult to assess before crack initiation, and is more bound to occur in old structures, for which the phenomenon was not taken into account in design before 1970. In addition, old steel materials present a more brittle behavior. In answer to these challenges, the FASSTbridge project, financed through European Infravation call, aimed at developing a pre-cracking fatigue assessment and strengthening methodology for steel bridges based on the technology of adhesively bonded composite. The proposed article presents some of the results of this project.