America’s Infrastructure The Need for Bridge, Road, and Highway Repairs and Construction


 

Types of shoring for excavation

It is commonly known that more bridges, highways, and roads need to be constructed throughout the United States. In addition to creating new infrastructure, however, existing bridges, highways, and roads are in need of repair.

Bridge Construction and Repairs

There are various types of bridges throughout the United States, including truss bridges, which are a popular design for bridges. Currently, there are approximately 607,380 bridges that have been constructed, and many of these are located in major metropolitan areas.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of America’s bridges are considered to be structurally deficient, and there is a significant backlog on repairing this necessary infrastructure. Since there are more than 2 hundred million trips taken every day across these deficient bridges, this is a major cause of concern.

The average age of bridges in the United States is 42 years. Recent data shows that 1 out of every 9 of these have been determined to be structurally deficient. In order to address this crucial situation by 2028, the Federal Highway Administration reported that $20.5 billion would need to be spent every year. Currently, however, the amount spent on these bridge repairs is just $12.8 billion a year.

Highway and Road Construction


During recent years, a considerable amount of funds have been spent on highway and road construction. In 2015 alone, nearly $90 billion was spent by the public sector in order to address these infrastructure needs. Recent projections for 2020 indicate that over $99.4 billion will be spent to construct additional highways and roads throughout the country.

Types of Shoring for Excavation


Trench shoring is needed for a variety of construction-oriented projects. This includes structural repairs for buildings and bridges as well as ground-up construction projects. Each type of shoring is classified based on its supporting characteristics and/or its position in space. There are 3 classes, or types of shoring for excavation:

  • Raking or inclined shores
  • Flying or horizontal shores
  • Dead or vertical shores

In order to create the actual shores, timber and/or aluminum hydraulic materials are used to provide shoring systems while conducting an excavation. The type of shoring used will depend on the construction project and other environmental factors.

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