The paper presents recent bridge projects in Europe, where the combination of innovative steel solutions with high strength steel S460, weathering steel and low-emission steels results in sustainable bridge infrastructure. The optimization of the conventional composite dowel strip concept to a new and innovative solution, the so-called „crocodile“, is described. In addition, the first network-arch bridge in Europe fully made in hot-rolled sections in weathering steel S460J2W is presented. Finally, the paper concludes with an LCA-study to quantify the potential GWP savings that can be achieved by a combination of a lean design of steel composite bridges and low-emission steels.
Tibolt et al. (Wed,) studied this question.