Materials in bridge engineering: in the near future
Building infrastructures are essential to the future of cities and urban growth. Since material is the gateway to the realization of bridge design concepts, it plays a significant role in bridge engineering. The journey towards future encompasses a key leading driver, sustainability, that will influence our world in the future and shape the future to a more sustainable, efficient and resilient one.
In this paper, we present possibilities that will show in which direction is the foreseeable future of materials in bridge construction heading to. For examples, how to optimize materials performance, how materials can contribute positive influence on sustainability, how to implement the potential concepts, how to reduce materials consumption and how to extend the life span of bridges by using innovative construction designs/methods? Pilot projects are presented to showcase the possibilities to change bridge construction in a sustainable way.