The Cause of Cracking in Post-Tensioned Concrete Box Girder Bridges and Retrofit Procedures

I read with great interest Dr. Podolny's paper on the cause of cracking in post-ten-sioned concrete box girder bridges and must emphasize its importance. Every bridge designer should not only read this valuable paper but keep it — as a warn-ing — on his desk when designing this type of structure. Although Dr. Podolny explains very carefully the causes of cracking in post-tensioned box girder bridges. I must ques-tion the solutions to some of these prob-lems. In man y cases, cracking is. as Dr. Podolny explains, induced by imposed deformations (thermal effects, shrinkage