Foundation Reuse for Highway Bridges

Foundations of existing highways and over-river bridges may have significant functional value. Hence, reuse of foundations of existing bridges during reconstruction or major rehabilitation can result in significant savings in costs and time. This report on bridge foundation reuse addresses critical issues encountered during decision-making on foundation reuse, assessment of existing bridge foundations for integrity, durability and capacity, strengthening of bridge foundations / substructures and design of bridge foundations for future reuse. The report includes numerous case examples on reuse of bridge foundations in the U.S. and Canada to highlight significant benefits of foundation reuse from social, environmental and economic perspectives. These case examples also present a detailed process followed in resolving integrity, durability and capacity issues encountered during the reuse process, and will serve as a knowledgebase for transportation agencies interested in reusing bridge foundations. Planning for reuse during the construction of a new bridge is a very important sustainability initiative that has also been addressed in this manual. This document is not meant to be used as a guideline; only as decision-making tool in addressing technical challenges and risk in reusing bridge foundations.  The full report is available from FHWA at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/18055/hif18055.pdf