STRUCTURAL DESIGNS AND CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY BRIDGES

The California highway bridge construction market is the largest in th e United States and still growing. It arguably represents the greatest concentration of highway bridge expenditure in the world. To gain ins ight into this important engineering and construction market, this pap er reviews the technological context of California's bridge constructi on sector from three perspectives: A technological overview, current t echnological directions, and emerging trends. The paper describes the dominance of the California Department of Transportation in designing and administering highway bridge projects and highlights the emergence of standardized cast-in-place prestressed concrete box girder bridges as the dominant design. Contractors have responded to this standardiz ed design with continuous incremental improvements through adaptation of construction process technologies. The paper concludes that falsewo rk, formwork, and concrete placement technologies are particularly imp ortant in gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage for construc tion of these bridges. This has led to specialized differentiation thr ough firms seeking technological-based market niches.