West Virginia has more than 6,700 bridges – from its 17 historically-registered wooden covered versions, to engineering marvels like the New River Gorge Bridge.

But many of the state’s bridges are in trouble, in need of repair or replacement at a time when funding for such projects is severely limited. West Virginia ranks among the top 25 percent of U.S. states with significant bridge deficiencies.

Which means Hota GangaRao is a busy man these days.

The founder and director of West Virginia University’s Constructed Facilities Center, Dr. GangaRao has spent his career becoming a leading researcher and voice in the study of structural deterioration and rehabilitation, while perfecting a process that preserves existing bridges and buildings.

CFC serves a number of federal and state agencies, conducting interdisciplinary research in the areas of composite materials, diagnostic tools, design procedures and structural components.

GangRao was recently named the recipient of the inaugural Maurice A. and Jo Ann Wadsworth Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which honored him for his commitment to teaching, research and service to his profession. He serves as Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, at WVU.

Over the past two decades, CFC has developed a process that has led to the rehabilitation of nearly 30 bridges across the state, keeping them safe and operable. It has done so at a fraction of the cost it takes to replace a bridge, typically around 20-25 percent of the bridge’s original price.

Now CFC is working closely with the West Virginia Division of Highways on a project with the potential to rehabilitate 400 to 500 concrete bridges across the state over the next five years.

“West Virginia is among the leading states with bridge deficiencies for a couple reasons,” GangaRao said. “Number one, the state does not have the funds to rehabilitate all its old bridges. Number two, traffic intensity and load capacities have increased significantly since these bridges were built.”

“We have a lot of coal roads here,” he continued, noting arteries trafficked by trucks hauling large volumes of coal. “While a typical 18-wheeler weighs only 72 Kips, a coal road bridge sometimes will carry 120 Kips (60 tons) from a fully-loaded coal truck. That is very hard on a bridge.”

CFC’s method allows West Virginia to preserve as many bridges as possible, rehabilitating and maintaining them at minimal cost.

“But West Virginia is not alone,” GangaRao said. “A lot of states are in bad shape now. America as a whole has a problem with deteriorating infrastructure.”
The figures GangaRao cites on what deficient roadway infrastructure, including bridges, costs the U.S. economy are staggering.

“Because of the simple fact of the country’s failure to sufficiently invest in our transportation infrastructure, including bridges, it has been estimated our economy has lost 870,000 jobs and $3.1 trillion in declined growth of our national gross domestic product,” GangaRao said, citing August 2011 numbers from the American Society for Civil Engineering.

“In addition, U.S. business would be not expending at an extra $430 billion by 2020 – almost half a trillion dollars – in terms of transportation costs, if our roads and bridges were in better shape,” he said. “Deficient highways and bridges led to an additional cost of more than $129 billion alone in 2010 to U.S. households and businesses. That’s why we should be concerned.”

Established in 1988, CFC fosters and conducts research and development activities vital to the rehabilitation of the U.S. infrastructure. Through joint projects and continuing education, the center works closely with the chemical, manufacturing and construction industries, as well as highway and other government agencies.

So how does a bridge go through rehab?

GangaRao said evaluation is the first step. Engineers and contractors examine the bridge for corrosion and deterioration, which often takes the form of flaking, or spalling.

“These evaluations can be based on very complex instrumentation or based on visual inspection,” GangaRao said. “Then we strip the bridge down to a solid portion of its original concrete or steel.”

At this point, the structure is covered with a two-inch outer mortar cover and wrapped tightly with a material made from either glass fabric or carbon fabric and resin; the fabric gives the wrapping material strength, while the resin binds with the structure’s original substrate.

“Not only does it hold things together, but the wrap also enhances the strength of the overall structure,” he said.

The Constructed Facilities Center trains workers from the state’s highway department and private contractors on proper wrapping procedures and those workers do most of the labor on bridges whose time has come to be refurbished.

“Some bridges in the past, we’ve done ourselves. There is a bridge known as the Madison Avenue Bridge in Huntington, where CFC is doing it right now and we’ve recently finished wrapping work on bridges in downtown Parkersburg and over Muddy Creek in Preston County,” GangaRao said.

“But most of these hundreds of bridges across West Virginia are being rehabilitated by private contractors using the process we developed here.”
CFC’s newest project – announced in late August – is a four-phase, nearly $1 million award where WVU’s team will help restore even more state bridges during the new few years.

In this project, CFC will evaluate existing wrapping techniques, establish which state bridges are candidates for restoration, determine cost-effective design methodologies, and guide workers and contractors to learn the best wrapping techniques.

How does a bridge qualify for rehab?

“I don’t decide which bridges get chosen. There are certain load rating schemes that are followed, so there’s not a biased opinion about the end result,” GangaRao said. “The West Virginia Division of Highways sends its engineers to look at each and every bridge once every two years, and they determine how much corrosion, how much spalling has taken place, what loads it can take, and other information.

“Then they determine if it is the right time to replace or rehab the bridge, depending upon the extent of damage or the deterioration. They call me when the structure gets very critical,” he said.

CFC’s preservation process works for old buildings as well.

“We have rehabilitated three school buildings – one in Preston County, two in Gilmer County. They were rehabilitated at a fraction of the cost it would have taken to replace them,” GangaRao said.

CFC does not get involved in the preservation of residential buildings.

GangaRao also directs the Center for the Integration of Composites into Infrastructure, a cooperative research effort among the National Science Foundation, industry, and WVU. CICI’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of polymer composites and innovative construction materials into infrastructure and transportation applications through collaborative research.

With modern materials, properties and design, a new bridge’s lifetime is considerably longer than a bridge built a few decades ago.

“In the past, bridges were designed to last about 50 years. Today, we’re designing bridges for 75 to 100 years. So with new bridges, if things are done properly, we won’t have to start doing any repairs for 20 or 25 years,” GangaRao said.

Despite the improvements, GangaRao doesn’t feel the U.S. is doing enough to improve its infrastructure.

“I think our infrastructure is going to deteriorate even more in the next five or ten years simply because we just do not have the money to keep pace with the rate of deterioration that’s taking place,” he said.

“This might be due to the aging of the infrastructure, or it might be due to excessive use, or it might be due to the simple fact that our existing infrastructure has far exceeded its life expectancy as designed back in the 1950s,” he continued. “For all these reasons, our infrastructure is going deteriorate at an even greater pace than we’ve seen in the recent past – because there are more vehicles, more tonnage, and the fact that, like human beings, materials and structures age. Therefore, once it goes beyond a certain life expectancy, the deterioration increases in its rate.”

GangRao’s focus today is on West Virginia’s bridges – and it’s a project likely to keep him busy for the foreseeable future.

“Right now, I’m focusing on the rehabilitation of several hundred bridges across the state. It’s a challenge, but it is something I tremendously enjoy doing,” he said. “In this whole exercise, I am not alone doing the work. Fortunately, many faculty, research engineers, and graduate students help me out on a daily basis. I am only a cheerleader.

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