The project identified the material requirements for fiber reinforced composites used as internal reinforcement for concrete bridge decks and recommended test methods for evaluating these composites.

Corrosion-induced deterioration of reinforced concrete bridge decks is a common and costly problem in the United States. To address this problem, there have been efforts in recent years to develop and evaluate alternatives to conventional steel reinforcement, such as epoxy-coated reinforcing steel, nonmetallic reinforcement, and other materials. One of these alternatives--FRP--has been used successfully in many industrial applications and more recently has been introduced as concrete reinforcement in bridge decks and other structural elements. While the use of FRP composites as reinforcement for concrete bridge decks provides a potential for increased service life and economic and environmental benefits, current standards and test methods do not account for the properties of FRP composite reinforcement and their relationship to performance. Therefore, there is a need to identify or develop performance-related tests to characterize and evaluate FRP composites and to recommend acceptable procedures for testing and selecting FRP composite reinforcement for use in concrete bridge decks

The research included a review of current practices regarding the use of FRP composites for concrete bridge deck reinforcement, performance of laboratory and analytical investigations, monitoring of in-service bridge deck installations, and identification of protocols for the evaluation of FRP composites. The research was limited to FRP rods and grids used for deck reinforcement; it did not deal with other forms of FRP composites or prestressed concrete decks. NCHRP Research Results Digest 282 provides a summary of the work performed in this research.