Damage Characterization and Rehabilitation of the Teil Bridge, Ardèche, France

This paper describes the experimental investigations and the planned rehabilitation program for the Teil Bridge, which connects the cities of Le Teil and Montέlimar in the Rhône–Alpes region of the Ardèche Department of France. Soon after the sudden rupture of a strand near the anchorage, the bridge was closed to traffic. Inspections were conducted to understand the causes of this event and to assess the strength of cables and strand sockets. Before the bridge was rehabilitated, its safety was improved through the strengthening of each socket. The bridge was then reopened to pedestrians and cyclists only. An acoustic emission system was installed over the course of a year. Events related to cable ruptures were monitored accordingly. Meanwhile, several other experimental investigations were conducted on steel and concrete materials (i.e., resilience, tensile steel strength, carbonation, chloride ingress) to estimate the residual structural service life of the bridge and to plan repair actions. A major rehabilitation program was then scheduled to change all of the cables and sockets. This paper presents stages of the investigation and the rehabilitation process.