Low-Carbon Ultra High-Performance Concrete for Use in Highway Infrastructure

As the State of Oregon seeks to reduce its carbon footprint and phase in lower-carbon materials, low-carbon ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is an advanced construction material that offers new opportunities for the future of highway infrastructure. The use of conventional UHPC is reported to eliminate the cracking and leakage that occurs when normal strength concretes or grouts are used, especially in existing bridges constructed with welded / grouted keys that have shown poor performance (Stanton and Khaleghi, 2020; Peruchini et al. 2021). At the same time, the use of conventional UHPC can enable the deployment of simplified connection details with shorter discrete reinforcement splice lengths and a reduced number of conflict points, which are beneficial for both new bridge construction and repair, retrofit, or rehabilitation of existing bridges. However, proprietary UHPC solutions are costly, and thus there is increasing interest in developing non-proprietary UHPC mixtures. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) conventional UHPC research and development program has produced a range of publications on the performance and use of UHPC. This includes the recently developed FHWA 13100 Technical Brief, which includes minimum requirements for non-proprietary UHPCs. However, the research performed by FHWA has so far not addressed the use of low-carbon materials. On the other hand, research has shown success in implementing low-carbon solutions for normal strength concretes by reducing Portland cement content by 15%. To date, limited to no research exists regarding development of low-carbon UHPCs (LCUHPCs) for bridge applications. Thus, the lack of non-proprietary LCUHPC mixture designs, lack of non-proprietary, on-site mixing methods and equipment, and absence of general QA/QC, are gaps that need to be addressed to allow the State of Oregon to meet their phased implementation of resilient, lower carbon materials.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Contract Numbers:

  SPR 865

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Oregon Department of Transportation

  355 Capital St NE MS42
  Salem, Oregon  United States  97301
• Project Managers:

  Galvez, Cristhian

• Performing Organizations:

  Oregon State University, Corvallis

  Department of Civil and Construction Engineering
  Corvallis, WA  United States  97331
• Principal Investigators:

  Barbosa, Andre

• Start Date: 20221101
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge construction; Implementation; Mix design; Sustainable transportation; Ultra high performance concrete
• Geographic Terms: Oregon
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Environment; Highways; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01964190
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Oregon Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: SPR 865
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 28 2025 11:57AM