{"id":2075014,"date":"2023-08-31T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/?p=2075014"},"modified":"2023-08-31T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T20:00:00","slug":"massachusetts-oldest-movable-steel-truss-bridge-marks-10-year-anniversary-of-nations-largest-six-span-frp-composite-vehicle-deck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/massachusetts-oldest-movable-steel-truss-bridge-marks-10-year-anniversary-of-nations-largest-six-span-frp-composite-vehicle-deck\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts\u2019 Oldest Movable Steel Truss Bridge Marks 10-Year Anniversary of Nation\u2019s Largest Six-Span FRP Composite Vehicle Deck<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALUM BANK, Pennsylvania — Rocks Village Bridge recently marked the 10-year anniversary of its six-span Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) vehicle deck. \u00a0Creative Composites Group\u2019s (CCG) FRP composite deck was installed in 2013 as part of a $14 million renovation project managed by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The 140-year-old steel truss structure connects West Newbury, Merrimac and Haverhill residents as well as several Southern New Hampshire towns, making it one of Massachusetts\u2019 most heavily travelled bridges. Its hand-operated swing span accommodates boat traffic. In 2022, CCG personnel performed a visual inspection of the 18,776-square-foot FRP deck, which remains the largest composite vehicle span in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTechnicians found that the FRP deck was in optimal condition with minor maintenance needed for overlay cracking at the joints and connection holes,\u201d says Scott Reeve, business development for CCG.  \u201cIt would have been nearly impossible to achieve a bridge that functioned to current safety standards yet maintained the bridge\u2019s character and original metal latticework with a traditional concrete deck. A typical concrete deck weighs 100 pounds per square foot, creating a deadload a historic steel truss span can\u2019t tolerate.  The FRP deck weighs just 25 pounds per square foot. A decade of use also demonstrates FRP\u2019s ability to withstand the effects of a harsh environment and rigorous use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCG prefabricates very large, corrosion-resistant panels at its Dayton, Ohio manufacturing facility. Constructing panels on CCG\u2019s production floor allows the company to coordinate design and construction specifications upfront instead of at the job site. Installation is quicker, and overall costs reduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Rocks Village Bridge is a good example of CCG\u2019s ability to fabricate very large FRP structures with high structural load requirements,\u201d says Reeve. \u201cThe relative stiffness of our fiberglass material makes deflection the driving factor in deck sizing with FRP. Because of this unique element, FRP bridges and bridge decks are built to safety and strength factors much higher than that of conventional material. In short, it means our decks will never break.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About CCG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creative Composites Group (CCG) supplies innovative Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) products for major infrastructure markets. CCG has the design-build and structural fabrication expertise to provide engineered systems and OEM solutions. CCG\u2019s combined team of engineers and technicians have been developing lightweight, durable, cost-effective FRP products for structurally demanding applications and corrosive environments for more than 50 years. Many of these products have paved the way for first-time use of engineered FRP composites for demanding infrastructure markets including: utility<\/a>, rail<\/a>,  bridges<\/a> and waterfront<\/a> applications because of FRP’s high-performance attributes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALUM BANK, Pennsylvania — Rocks Village Bridge recently marked the 10-year anniversary of its six-span Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) vehicle deck. \u00a0Creative Composites Group\u2019s (CCG) FRP composite deck was installed in 2013 as part of a $14 million renovation project managed by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The 140-year-old steel truss structure connects West Newbury, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5017,"featured_media":2075017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[1856,1853],"tags":[51522,51523,51524,15995,51525,3484,21148,24334,10844,51526,37454,51527,1134,31287,51528],"acf":[],"views":15,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/23-Rocks-Village-Bridge-FRP-Composite-Deck.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2075014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2075017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2075014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2075014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csengineermag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2075014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}