TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis Report 324: Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems to Limit Traffic Disruption During Construction assesses and documents the use of innovative prefabricated elements and systems and assesses its effects on on-site construction time and cost, closure time, and environmental impacts. The synthesis report also looks at the use of fiber-reinforced polymers and other advanced materials and new technologies that are gaining in popularity but are still in the experimental stages.

Due to significant economic growth in the last few decades, increasing traffic loads impose tremendous demand on bridge structures. This, coupled with ongoing deterioration of bridges, introduces a unique challenge to bridge engineers in maintaining service of these infrastructure assets without disruption to vital economic and social activities. This requires innovative solutions and optimized methodologies to achieve safe and efficient operation of bridge structures. Bridge engineering practitioners, researchers, owners, and contractors from all over the world presented on modern techniques in design, inspection, monitoring and rehabilitation of bridge structures, at the Sixth New York City Bridge Conference held New York City on July 25-26, 2011. This book contains a select number of papers presented at the conference. This group of papers provides a state-of-the-art in bridge engineering and is of interest to any reader in the field.

The traveling public has no patience for prolonged, high cost construction projects. This puts highway construction contractors under intense pressure to minimize traffic disruptions and construction cost. Actively promoted by the Federal Highway Administration, there are hundreds of accelerated bridge construction (ABC) construction programs in the United States, Europe and Japan. Accelerated Bridge Construction: Best Practices and Techniques provides a wide range of construction techniques, processes and technologies designed to maximize bridge construction or reconstruction operations while minimizing project delays and community disruption. - Describes design methods for accelerated bridge substructure construction; reducing foundation construction time and methods by using pile bents - Explains applications to steel bridges, temporary bridges in place of detours using quick erection and demolition - Covers design-build systems' boon to ABC; development of software; use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) - Includes applications to glulam and sawn lumber bridges, precast concrete bridges, precast joints details; use of lightweight aggregate concrete, aluminum and high-performance steel