Opportunities in Critical

Bridge Renovation Projects in

the U.S.

Time to seize the business

opportunity

Finpro in Brief

• Finpro is the national trade,

internationalization and investment

development organization in Finland.

• Today Finpro has 370 professionals

working in over 65 offices in 48

countries.

• Finpro’s consultants completed almost

1700 client assignments in 2013.

• We support our clients' international

growth and success by enabling them

to be in the right markets at the right

time with a competitive concept and

offering.

Founded in 1919 by Finnish companies, Finpro now has some 550 members: Finnish companies, the Confederation of

Finnish Industries, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises and the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries. A public-

private organization and part of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy Group, Finpro also works closely with

other players in Finnish innovation ecosystem such as ELY-centers, Tekes and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

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The Business Opportunity in the U.S.

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• There are over 600,000 bridges in the U.S.

– Average age is 43 years and designed life span is 50 years

– Many bridges are over 65 years old – safety concerns are growing

• The U.S. bridge infrastructure is aging and in need of repairs

– 1 in 9 (66,405) bridges are rated structurally deficient

– At the same time, increasing population, congestion and traffic put more and more pressure on infrastructure

• Around 25% of bridges are deemed functionally obsolete and need constant monitoring before the repairs can be made

“Unfortunately, infrastructure is not like fine wine. It does not improve with age.”

Barry LePartner, author, “Too Big To Fall”

The Business Opportunity in the U.S.

• Federal, state, and local bridge investments are not keeping pace with the growing costs of aging bridges. The FHWA estimates that the cost to repair or replace only the deficient bridges eligible under the Federal Highway Bridge Program is almost $76 billion. The total investment needed to address all bridges - not just the eligible deficient bridges – is USD 121 billion.

• USD 20.5 billion annually is needed to eliminate the deficient bridge backlog by 2028 - current spending is only USD 12.8 billion - a shortfall of USD 8 billion per year.

• Often, replacement of the old bridges is not an option because of the capital costs

– Shutting down these bridges to replace them would significantly disrupt traffic

– The best choice is to monitor the development of issues that could compromise the integrity of the bridge and upgrade where feasible

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Examples of Business Opportunities

• Structural Health Monitoring Systems are starting to be used more often. Currently, bridges are inspected visually about once every two years.

• Data Mining techniques to analyze civil engineering data

• Wireless monitoring systems that collect, transmit and analyze the data triggering an alarm when something has changed.

• Sensors for monitoring strain gauge, vibration, acoustics, temperature and corrosivity

• Remote Sensing Technologies

- 3D optical bridge evaluation systems

• - Thermal Infrared Imaging

- Ultra Wide Band Imaging radar systems (a form of GPR)

• Ground penetrating radar (GPR) to analyze bridge decks

• Coatings that would prevent corrosion. Road salt has contributed to the corrosion of steel and concrete bridges.

• Fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) are used at smaller bridge constructions but the cost is prohibiting large-scale usage.

• Specialized machinery for building and repairing bridges in problematic areas and situations

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Pennsylvania Rapid Bridge Replacement Project

• Aim is to replace up to 614 of the state's structurally deficient bridges in 5 years

• Pennsylvania Department of Transportation late last month asked four teams to submit proposals for the Project:

– Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners

– Keystone Bridge Partners

– Commonwealth Bridge Partners

– Pennsylvania Crossings

• A public-private partnership team will be awarded the contract in the spring of 2014; construction is scheduled to begin in 2015

• The selected team will manage and finance the bridges' design, construction and maintenance for a yet-to-be-determined number of years under one contract. Construction is expected to take five years.

• The budget is not known at this time but will likely be in the $500 M-1B range.

• Once the team is chosen, contacts within the team will be identified to introduce Finnish technologies.

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Ohio Bridge Partnership

• A new construction initiative

designed to reduce the inventory of

deficient county and municipal

bridges across the state using

design build delivery

• This is the first-of-its-kind initiative

and will invest $120 million from

2015 – 2017 to address bridge

deficiencies on nearly 220 bridges

throughout Ohio

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Comments from the Market

“What is needed are wireless monitoring systems that can collect, transmit and analyze

the data triggering an alarm that something has changed, calling attention to the

problem. This would save on the cost of visual inspection and having to manually

analyze the data.”

Sr. Bridge Design Engineer

“Age and environmental factors are the biggest problems as many bridges are 50 +

years old and nearing the end of their “design life”. Road salt has contributed to the

corrosion of steel and concrete bridges and this has led to a bridge washing program

that was initiated last year. It is time consuming. Some coatings for bridge decks have

been used and there is a push towards more preservation and coatings such as a

carbon fiber wrap that could prevent corrosion could be beneficial”.

Manager of Bridge Safety & Evaluation

“Structural Health Monitoring systems and Intelligent Traffic Control systems are being

evaluated as well as sub-structure and tower monitoring technologies. Lighting and

security systems are also important issues”.

General Manager

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Global Finpro References

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More information

Kimmo Aura

Regional Sales Manager, Americas

kimmo.aura(a)finpro.fi

Tel. +358 40 5048 317

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Leonard La Vardera

Senior Consultant

Leonard.LaVardera(a)finpro.fi

Tel. +358 20 4695 811

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website www.finpro.fi