Proof loading on the viaduct Vlijmen-Oost affected by Alkali-Silica Reaction

The viaduct Vlijmen-Oost, affected by Alkali-Silica Reaction, was proof loaded on 6 November 2013.
This tested was performed in order to asses the structural response of the bridge and the its current capacity.
The viaduct was already monitored from several years in the contest of the A59 project. The development of ASR was assessed in 1997, however the bridge expansion appear to be still limited.

This project was conducted by Rijkswaterstraat in collaboration with 3 IS2C project (PAT-ASR, Smart Proof Loading and InfraWatch).

Article in the local news paper.

The BELFA truck used to perform the proof loading.

Part of the team (from left to right): Rita Esposito (TUDelft), Max Hendriks (TUDelft), Johan De Boon (TUDelft), Sonja Fennis (TUDelft) and Ane de Boer (Rijkwaterstrat).

ASR Affected structures in Netherlands - 3

Nordwijkhout, Herenweg Viaduct: 

Built in 1964, over highway N206. Recently diagnosed with severe map cracking and coloration under the deck and abutments. In 1999, several cores have been extracted from the structure and ASR formations were observed. Couple of months ago, administrative units concluded on demolition of this structure. PAT-ASR team will be involved in further studies on concrete cores from this structure. You can find images of our recent site visit to this structure.

ASR Affected structures in Netherlands - 2

Schoonhoven, Montigny Viaduct:

Built in 1959, on road N216 is the first confirmed concrete structure in the Netherlands which was severely damaged by alkali silica reaction. Bridge demolished end of 2010.

Dr Oguzhan Copuroglu studied several cores from this structure for the investigation of microstructural features of the concrete and amorphous and crystalline ASR product compositions.

This study concluded that ASR and related damage were exclusively created by the reactive coarse aggregate although the fine aggregates exhibit reactive components in the Montigny viaduct concrete. You can find the details on this study* in Proceedings of the 33th Int. conference on cement microscopy.

* O. Copuroglu, G. Einarsson, "Montigny viaduct revisited: Microstructure of an ASR damaged concrete from 1959", Proceedings of the 33th Int. conference on cement microscopy, San Francisco, California, U.S.A, April 17-20, 2011

ASR Affected structures in Netherlands

In Netherlands, most highway structures are concrete structures. However alkali silica reaction is mostly overlooked until 1995. Mostly, due to wide usage of high slag content concrete. Netherlands was confronted with the first large scale ASR-damage in A59 highway where 20 bridges were identified to be affected. Today there ongoing studies on these bridges and several other structures. Lately, (unofficially) the first structure was demolished due to ASR. PAT-ASR team got involved with this structure and did some petrographic analysis on the cores extracted from A bridge in Schoonhoven (Zuid-Holland Province).

Recently, we got in touch with Zuid Holland Province administration, who are eager to carry out studies on several structures which are supposed to be ASR affected. You can find more info about this possibly affected/suspected structures under investigation (and also find a map for the locations of these structures).

View ASR in NL in a larger map

Ongoing studies on some of there structures will follow: