Development of a Light-Weight Emergency Bridge

Lightweight and corrosion resistant fiber-reinforced-polymer profiles have found increased application in bridge and industrial constructions in recent years. An emergency single-lane road-bridge for small military loads has been developed with a span of 20 m utilizing glass-fiber-reinforced-polymers (GFRP) composites. The paper presents the structural design, material properties, hybrid connections and the extensive test program along with the verification tests on the prototype bridge that have been performed under service loads and environmental conditions to verify the design and to calibrate the dynamic behaviour simulated with special software. A second research project on a GFRP-bridge for large military loads with a span of 30 m is briefly discussed.