The project developed the details of a continuous precast prestressed stay-in-place concrete system and girder-to-deck connections that would substantially reduce bridge-deck construction and replacement time.

With increasing highway traffic, motorists are becoming more intolerant of delays during rehabilitation of bridge decks. In addition to traffic delays and increased risk of accidents, both users and owners incur financial losses because of the interruption of service during deck replacement or rehabilitation. There was a need to identify or develop optimized systems for rapid replacement and recommending details for new superstructures that can facilitate future rapid replacement.

Research included a review of relevant domestic and foreign literature; survey of U.S. departments of transportation, bridge designers, and contractors; the conduct of analytical studies and laboratory tests, and the development of recommendations for bridge-deck systems and girder-to-deck details that would reduce bridge-deck construction and replacement time. NCHRP Report 407: Rapid Replacement of Bridge Decks documents the work performed in this research.

The unpublished appendices are available below: