According to FHWA, “Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) is bridge construction that uses innovative planning, design, materials, and construction methods in a safe and cost-effective manner to reduce the onsite construction time that occurs when building new bridges or replacing and rehabilitating existing bridges.” ABC has several advantages over traditional cast-in-place (CIP) bridge construction. They include:
The ABC innovation is typically accomplished by the use of prefabricated bridge members and components. They are built offsite or onsite near the bridge depending on cost advantage. In either case, the members are erected and connected together to form the bridge. The focus of this website is on connections used to assemble prefabricated elements to form substructure of a bridge. Based on the information available in the literature and ongoing research at Iowa State University, suitable connection concepts and details are presented. In addition, information on products available in the market that can be potentially used in the assembly of the connections are provided. To ensure an up to date information can be made available, this website also allow designers and manufacturers to submit new connection details and products information so that they can be added.