CINTEC America, Inc. Offers Award-Winning Archtec Bridge Reinforcement System

Online, November 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - CINTEC America of Baltimore, Md., a world leader in the field of structural masonry retrofit strengthening, repair, and preservation, offers the award-winning Archtec bridge reinforcement system. Archtec is a complete diagnostic design and installation service, utilizing sophisticated technology and drilling methods specially designed to strengthen masonry arch bridges while maintaining the historical integrity of the bridge.

The Archtec process involves advanced numerical modeling of the bridge and simulation of the loading regime in order to specify a retrofitted reinforcing system. A computer model is then used to determine the load carrying capacity of the bridge in its current condition. At the site, the CINTEC Anchor System, fashioned out of a steel bar enclosed in a mesh fabric sleeve, is inserted into small holes bored from either the road surface or beneath the bridge after which a specially developed grout is slowly injected, fusing with the mesh, expanding, and shaping to fit the spaces within the walls. (These installed reinforcing rods have been independently age-tested, with a predicted long-term durability of at least 120 years). In addition to preserving the historical features of the bridge, Archtec has no impact on the natural environment, is economically superior to other methods of reinforcement, and can be completed with little or no traffic delays.

CINTEC's Archtec has been used on masonry arch bridges across the globe, including Europe, Australia, and North America. One particular bridge that Archtec aided in restoring was the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge in the busy Washington D.C. suburb of Georgetown. According to a March/April 2005 article written by Christy Darden and Thomas J. Scott, published in Federal Highway Administration, Public Roads Magazine, the bridge dates back to 1831 and was originally designed to carry horse-and-cart trade across the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Today, the structure carries the heavy loads of a modern urban bridge-9,400 vehicles per day.

After an inspection and load rating analysis, it was determined that the bridge could not support current vehicle loads at the minimum live load of HS20 recommended by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), which is 32.7 metric tons (36 tons).

The National Park Service, who owns the bridge, wanted reasonable assurance that a strengthening project would not compromise the historic integrity of the oldest bridge in Washington D.C. Therefore, in April of 2001, the National Park Service team began exploring possible methods for both strengthening and preserving the bridge.

The team selected the Archtec system, which proved to be.... After calculating the load carrying capacity and creating a model to test these loads, construction began in 2004. In the end, workers were able to strengthen the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge in less than 3 weeks.

"We had not seen the technology before," says Karen LeBlanc, communications specialist with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). "This was really an interesting engineering feat. We took other engineers out to view the process as it was going on because it was so innovative."

Before the strengthening project, the weight restriction on the bridge was posted at 22.7 metric tons (25 tons), according to an inspection report from February 1997. After the renovation, the rating is HS25, or 40.8 metric tons (45 tons) under AASHTO guidelines.

Thanks to this innovative reinforcing system, Cintec's Archtec offered a solution that helped the team strengthen the stone arch bridge without visibly altering the appearance of this historic structure.

CINTEC was awarded the 2002 Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation and received two U.K. Historic Bridge Awards and an Engineering Excellence Award from The Institution of Engineers, Australia in 2001.