Hawaii Bridge Deck

Project

High Temperature Structral Concrete

On May 8th, 2018 President Trump declared Hawaii’s volcanic activity a major disaster, which in turn provided federal assistance to supplement State and local efforts in areas affected by the (volcanic) situation.

With this problem and the forecast/expectation that the problem would continue for not only months, but years ahead, a call for emergency infrastructure remedies was accelerated by the State. In turn, engineering firm, KSF, Inc. and construction company Hawaiian Dredging were directed to find solutions to address the many large fissures as well as ongoing lava flows which were limiting not only everyday/routine mobility, but also emergency evacuation access. The main challenge in this project had to do with creating a bridge(s) and/or road passageway that could withstand sustained heat exposure of 1500⁰F.

In a time period of approximately 90 days, Miracon developed and provided a concrete design which would hold up to the high heat conditions as well as support traffic loads which would include commercial truck carriers. It was understood that a normal concrete mix – based upon Portland cement would not tolerate sustained heat conditions exceeding 800⁰F.

Through an accelerated design and testing process, working in conjunction with the contracting firm (HD), the engineering firm (KSF) as well as material suppliers, Miracon was able to develop and test a high performance/high temperature (refractory)concrete product. Follow -thru oversight was also provided to ensure the actual manufacturing and placement of the concrete was successfully completed.

The final concrete design was tested to achieve over 6,000 psi in less than 3 days and, to achieve at least 6,000 psi in compressive strengths after repeated/sustained heat conditions (over 1500⁰F).

Please see the following photos which illustrate some of the activity of this project – from start to finish.