Feasibility Study for Development of Marine Exposure Site (0-5266-S)

Durability is a serious issue for U.S. transportation infrastructure. The direct costs related to lack of durability are high and increasing, and there are substantial indirect costs to the traveling public due to deteriorated facilities. A recent study by the Federal Highway Administration estimated annual corrosion costs for the U.S. to be $552 billion per year. Even so, corrosion is only one cause of these durability problems. These problems affect the state of Texas, which has one of the largest transportation systems (49,829 highway bridges and 192,113 lane miles of highway as of 2006). One approach to reduce the high costs associated with the lack of durable infrastructure systems is to prevent and reduce the deterioration/corrosion of transportation structures in aggressive or coastal environments, where exposure conditions are severe and difficult to replicate in laboratory experiments. A proposed solution to solve these problems is the development of a marine exposure test site to test materials and structural components in an actual marine environment. The ultimate goals of the test site are to increase the durability and service life, reduce the capital and maintenance costs, and improve the quality, performance, and safety of the transportation infrastructure in Texas through real-exposure research, experimentation, and testing of construction materials, structures, and processes.