Medical research takes an average of 17 years to make a difference in clinical practice. In engineering, that gap can be even wider.
But thanks to a four-year, $904,000 research grant funded by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) and Federal Highway Administration, Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Fabio Matta’s bridge deck maintenance research project will help shorten the gap. He aims to bring innovative but well-researched materials out of academia and into the real world.
“There are materials that, in terms of research and evidence, are quite established,” Matta says. “But in terms of application, they’re not quite there because engineers don’t feel comfortable using them.”
As South Carolina’s bridge infrastructure ages, SCDOT is struggling to keep up with maintenance. Matta and his team, including Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Nicole Berge and Clemson University materials scientist Prasad Rangaraju, are working to bring inexpensive and durable materials to SCDOT’s toolbox.
“The Department of Transportation and its staff have done a lot of work with the upkeep,” Matta says. “But there is no escaping the fact that this infrastructure is getting older.”
Matta’s specialty is fiber-reinforced plastic materials that can be a replacement for steel in bridge reinforcements. Steel can be corroded by salt, which is especially problematic for bridges crossing seaside marshes in the state’s Lowcountry region. However, fiber-reinforced materials are resistant to salt corrosion and several times stronger than steel.
“My hope is that we can build these bridges, and people will drive on them and have no clue that deep inside, under the concrete, there is no steel whatsoever. But they don’t have to worry about that because it’s completely safe,” Matta says.
Meanwhile, Berge and Rangaraju will focus on finding alternative green concrete mixtures. Concrete is relatively environmentally friendly, but since large amounts are produced for construction, it has a sizable carbon footprint. Rangaraju is researching green concrete mixtures that can save money and reduce carbon output. Some green alternatives include formulations with recycled materials, such as discarded ash from power plants or finely ground waste glass.
“We realize that concrete is necessary, but what we’re trying to do with this research is lower the impact and make it even cleaner,” Rangaraju says. “Our research is to improve a material that is already as good as it can get.”
Berge, whose interest is from the environmental and economic side, is working to quantify life cycle costs and benefits so engineers can more easily address budget and ecological concerns.
The project began in October 2024 and as part of the first phase, Matta’s team surveyed engineers across the state to determine the most important issues to tackle.
“We don’t live in an ivory tower,” Matta says. “We need to hear from the people in the trenches and learn how the situation is out there.”
The results of the survey will help determine which materials the team will focus on developing. Matta will also select two bridges to use as test beds and will be repaired or replaced with the innovative materials. According to Matta, engineers avoid using these materials because no guidelines exist to assist them. The research will eventually come together to help him develop codes that engineers can use to design and repair bridges.
“After all this research work is complete, we’re confident that we’ll have plenty of knowledge for these materials to be deployed on a large scale,” Matta says.
For Matta, the research project is a culmination of the work he has been involved with for the last past 20 years. He expects that South Carolinians will see a difference in the state’s transportation infrastructure soon.
“This is an opportunity to do what I care the most about, taking research and translating it into something that’s useful for society,” Matta says. “This is the kind of project where I might be able to see the results well before I get too old.”