Detection of Corrosion Effects on Prestressed Concrete Bridge Deck Slabs From the Champlain Bridge Through Non-Destructive Testing Techniques
When managing concrete bridge infrastructure, what you cannot see can often pose the highest risk in post-tensioned (PT) systems. In standard reinforced concrete decks, corrosion typically sounds an early alarm: rust staining, map cracking, and concrete spalling that lead to exposure of the corroded reinforcement. In PT systems, however, high-strength steel strands/wires exist inside ducts that are embedded a few inches within the concrete. Corrosive de-icing salts and moisture can migrate through microcracks, interfaces, or construction joints, triggering severe localized pitting and strand/wire section loss inside the ducts while the deck surface remains visually intact. The decommissioning of Montreal’s historic Champlain Bridge provided an unprecedented, full-scale testbed to investigate this silent degradation. Instead of relying on small laboratory specimens, full-scale post-tensioned roadway deck slabs that had endured nearly six decades of heavy Canadian traffic and harsh freeze-thaw cycles were extracted…