EXTREN DWB® Double Web Beam

Tom's Creek Bridge: Blacksburg, Virginia 8" x 6" EXTREN DWB ® double-web beams replaced 10" wide flange steel beams in the 18 foot span, two-lane bridge. The bridge was upgraded from a 10-ton to 20-ton capacity after the rusted, severely deteriorated steel beams were replaced. Total construction time for steel beam removal and replacement with the composite beams and a timber deck was less than five days. The bridge utilized Strongwell's FRP hybrid 8" x 6" double-web beam that has carbon fiber in the flanges to increase the beam's stiffness to more than six million psi. The unique double-web design featuring internal flange stiffeners also provided a beam with less than 1/2% rotation under three-point loading in laboratory tests. Sugar Grove, Virginia The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) installed eight 36" x 18" EXTREN DWB beams as a replacement for deteriorated steel beams in a two lane vehicular bridge in Sugar Grove, Virginia. This bridge demonstration project was sponsored by the Innovative Bridge Research and Construction Program of the Federal Highway Administration. Strongwell, Virginia Tech and the Virginia Transportation Research Council worked together for two years analyzing and testing the 36" x 18" EXTREN DWB beams to ensure these new FRP beams could meet all the requirements of an AASHTO-HS20 bridge. The new bridge exceeds VDOT's standard bridge requirements for design safety and is expected to surpass other VDOT's bridges in terms of useful service life since the FRP beams are not subject to environmental corrosion. Engineers from Virginia Tech installed a data monitoring system on the bridge to collect performance data for VDOT and FHWA for a period of two years.