A replacement highway bridge in Hampden, a town next to Bangor, Maine, has girders made partly of composite materials and there’s real hope this could cut down on maintenance problems, especially rust caused by road salt.
The Bangor Daily News has a story – read it here: “The bridge’s new span features five beams built with fiber-reinforced polymer, a composite material consisting of glass fiber, carbon fiber, foam core and resin.” (The link in the quote is a PDF describing the specs for what is known as a tub girder.)
The story is headlined “Brewer company’s new technology will make stronger bridges” which confused me until I realized that Brewer is a town beside Bangor and it wasn’t referring to some byproduct of making beer.
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