Episode 45: Scott Reeve; Corey Sechler, Creative Composites Group

Infrastructure in the U.S., particularly regarding the deterioration of a number of bridges across the country, has been a large topic of discussion in recent years, even more so with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law designating nearly $400 billion in infrastructure investments. Even more recently, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, due to a container ship accident, has sparked a new round of discussion about bridge repairs.

In this installment of CW Talks, we interview fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites manufacturer Creative Composites Group (Alum Bank, Pa., U.S.) business development manager, Scott Reeve, and sales manager of waterfront solutions, Corey Sechler, about the company’s use of composite materials in infrastructure rehabilitation projects, including bridges and waterfront structures.

Read an excerpt from CW Talks Episode 45.

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CompositesWorld (CW): The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse recently brought the problem of the nation’s declining bridges into the spotlight once again. Can you talk a bit about this in the context of infrastructure repair initiatives?

Scott Reeve (SR): The bridge itself was not a factor. It’s a little over 50 years old. The collapse was due to the impact from the container ship.

There are a number of bridges out of the 600,000 highway (or vehicle bridges) in the U.S., and there is a fairly high percentage that are deficient. What we mean when we say “structurally deficient” is that they don’t meet a lot of the codes that are now in place.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act has helped in terms of getting more funding out there, and so there are more bridge rehabilitations going on, and generally in those cases they’re going through and often replacing some of the steel girders that are part of the superstructure, and then replacing the driving decks. Some of those applications are ones in which composite materials are applicable.

CW: Can you talk about the role that composite materials are playing in bridge rehabilitation, reinforcement and protection today?

SR: Some of the places that FRP composites have been most applicable on vehicle bridges has actually been movable bridges [draw bridges or lifting bridges that allow for the passage of boats or barges]. Because many of them were built many years ago, there are limits to what you can do, even from a superstructure steel side to reinforce it. So, as some of the loads and weights of the vehicle traffic have gone up, work has been done to reduce the weight of the [bridge] decks, so that the bridge itself can take the higher loads from traffic. These are also places where you have the natural long-term benefit of composite materials in terms of no corrosion.

CW: In terms of using FRP to protect waterfront structures, can you describe some of those solutions?

Corey Sechler (CS): Let us lay this out first and foremost. To be fair, there is no product that we currently manufacture that would come remotely close to stopping a vessel of that size from impacting the Key Bridge.

Having said that, on a much smaller scale, we are working with state agencies and DOTS to provide solutions for navigable waterways. We provide fender systems and dolphin piles — components like that — to aid vessel traffic (or traffic in general).

CW: Can you talk a bit about how those structures are created and how they work?

CS: One of the challenges that many of our agencies have is that they’re accustomed to working with traditional materials like wood, concrete or steel. However, while those materials have many pros to them, there are some cons, including a shortened service life in saltwater or brackish environments.

Fortunately, a product like FRP can provide some of those agencies with a longer service life. We take various components — it could be a round, hollow pipe pile, or a fiberglass sheet pile — and form an entire system out of them.

A fender system would be constructed out of a round, hollow pipe pile, maybe a diameter of 12-24 inches or larger — whatever size load we need to handle. And then that is often coupled with something like a fiberglass whale system or a reinforced plastic lumber system. In some cases, we’re working with agencies like the U.S. Army Corps to provide them with larger diameter dolphin or monopiles to help protect either the bridge structure or maybe even part of a ferry system.

SR: These fender systems, you can also think of them as a fence in the water — guardrails. Basically, we make 100-foot-long fence posts that go down below the mud line for support, up through 30 feet of water, and then stick up about 13-15 feet above the waterline. Then there’s horizontal plastic lumber or composite crossmembers — and that is what takes the impact.

One of the big benefits of composite materials is the combination of high strength (similar to steel) and medium modulus stiffness compared to steel. The composite fender systems bend but don’t break. They can take an impact, deflect or dissipate the energy without breaking — and without breaking the ship or the vessel. Then they return back to shape.

So, lining the channels between bridge piers with these fender systems provides a nice solution. Of course, everything has its place — these systems work in certain waterway configurations and with certain-sized vessels.