In 1989, Wallbank (Wallbank, 1989) published a report based on a survey carried out on 200 U.K motorway bridges representative of 10% of bridge stocks. The report detailed the condition of the bridge structures and the expenditure for maintenance. It was estimated that the UK would spend £616.5 million to repair 10% of the bridge stocks which has deteriorated due to the corrosion of steel. Therefore, the cost to repair for all damaged bridges could be around ten times of the estimated cost or more. This could also be applied at a global level as this issue is applicable to many other countries. Among the 600,905 bridges across the United States, 12.1% of these were found to be structurally deficient (ASCE, 2009). It was estimated that U.S.A would need $8.3 billion/year in order to repair all the structurally deficient bridges due to corrosion damages and indirect costs such as traffic delays and loss of productivity would exceed $83 billion (Koch et al., 2001).
The corrosion in steel reinforced structures needs to be addressed with sustainable and durable solutions. In an attempt to reduce corrosion damage, several measures have been investigated such as high quality concrete which is less porous and less permeable, steel protection methods such as cathodic protection, epoxy coating and waterproofing the decks. However, the effectiveness of these methods in the long term raises concerns over its reliability (Keesler, et al., 1988; Clarke, 1999). There have been research and case studies in the last two decades to investigate the use of alternative durable materials, such as, FRP and stainless steel in reinforced concrete structures.
FRP materials and stainless steel are more durable and less corrosive alternatives to steel in reinforced concrete structures. The FRP materials can be further classified as Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymers (GFRP), Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), Aramid Fibre Reinforced Polymers (AFRP) and Basalt Fibre Reinforced Polymers (BFRP). Among these, stainless steel is twice as expensive as GFRP. CFRP and AFRP are also more expensive than GFRP and BFRP. Therefore, based on their availability and cost, GFRP and BFRP can be the most cost effective to replace steel.