APWA International Public Works Congress NRCC/CPWA Seminar Series “Innovations in Urban Infrastructure” MONITORING PERFORMANCE OF CORROSION INHIBITORS IN A REINFORCED CONCRETE BRIDGE By D. CUSSON 1 Institute for Research in Construction, National Research Council of Canada 1500 Montreal Road, Ottawa, CANADA, K1A OR6 Abstract Résumé This paper describes an on-going consortium established two years ago to evaluate the long-term field performance of proprietary corrosion inhibiting systems for the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete bridges. The field monitoring consists of annual visits to the bridge to conduct visual inspections and corrosion surveys of the traffic-exposed face of the reconstructed bridge parapet. Further, innovative remote wireless systems using cellular phone technology are used to record vital information on the concrete parapet. The field evaluation is also supported by lab experiments which consist of tests on cores taken annually from the bridge parapet and of an accelerated corrosion lab study on field-cast reinforced concrete prisms. Keywords: bridge instrumentation, corrosion inhibitors, field performance 1 Introduction Bridge repair is a costly activity in North America, yet little information exists on the long-term performance of repair and protection materials. Because of this, bridge owners and designers have difficulty in selecting appropriate materials that are compatible with the substrate and suitable for the application. Climate extremes and deicing salts on bridges can damage concrete further via rebar corrosion (Seabrook and Hansson 1996; Mirza et al. 1998). As a result, the repair is short-lived. To address this problem, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) formed a consortium of interested groups, including owners and manufacturers. The main objective of the project is to ascertain the performance and understand factors affecting the effectiveness of corrosion inhibitors for bridge decks via monitoring their in-situ behavior over five years. The corrosion inhibiting systems include (i) concrete admixtures, (ii) rebar coatings, and/or (iii) concrete coatings/sealers. Manufacturers will benefit from appraisals of products, product improvement feedback and input from product users. Bridge owners will gain useful product appraisals, rankings and long-term performance data. 1 Dr. Daniel Cusson is a Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada. He is leading field consortium projects on the rehabilitation of concrete bridges. He can be reached at daniel.cusson@nrc.ca or at (613) 998-7361.