Anatomy of Steel Bridge Heat-Straightening Project

Heat-straightening repair of damaged steel girders has been conducted on a number of bridges over the years. However, little documentation is available on repair methodology and response to such repairs. Such documentation for the field repair of a bridge in Iowa is provided. The Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) decided to train its maintenance personnel to perform heat-straightening repairs. The training program consisted of 2 days of classroom and laboratory tutorial training and a field heat-straightening project. The field project was a bridge spanning I-80 near Davenport. The repair was successfully completed and demonstrated the practicality of implementing recent advances in heat-straightening research. The response of the damaged girder to the heat-straightening process was also measured and compared with theoretical models.