Repair/Retrofit Anchorage Designs for Bridge Rails

This project focused on developing alternative rail anchorage systems for the T501 and T203 bridge rail systems. The project considered only epoxy adhesive anchoring systems for each of these railings, for use in repair and retrofit situations. Strength data on the existing T501R 'bolt-through" retrofit design is not well-defined. A tested retrofit design for the T203 did not exist at the time of starting this project. During this project, documented data on the strength characteristics of the conventionally anchored T501 and T203 bridge rail systems were obtained. These data were analyzed and used to develop alternate rail anchorage systems for both the T501 and T203 bridge rails. Long-term durability of epoxy anchoring systemsn was also considered based on information provided by the epoxy adhesive manufacturer. The retrofit/repair strengths from the dynamic and static testing for both the T501 and the T203 compared very closely to the dynamic and static strengths of the conventionally anchored (As-Is) strengths capacities. In summary, the strengths of the retrofit designs were very close and in some tests exceeded the calculated capacities of the bridge rails. The static strengths were very close to the dynamic 50 millisecond average strengths recorded from the dynamic tests. The new retrofit/repair designs developed and tested for this project are recommended for implementation for use on any new or existing bridge projects. The use of commercial adhesive anchor systems (Hilti RE 500 Adhesive Anchoring System) was very successful in achieving the strengths needed to adequately anchor the retrofit/repair reinforcement for both the T501 and the T203 bridge rails. The information learned from this project can be used to retrofit and repair other bridge rail designs in the future.