AUTOROUTE 40 RECONSTRUCTION

The Autoroute 40 (a six lane Interstate style highway) is the main East-West artery through the city of Montreal.  Built for the most part in the 70's a major rebuilding project was launched a dozen years ago to replace the failing concrete roadbed and related structures.  Ravaged by de-icing corrosion and very high traffic volume this highway suffered from the same environmental challenges faced by all highways in Quebec.

In 2004 a section of the highway was rebuilt and the Quebec Ministry of Transport chose to perform a test.  Based on the succesful use of galvanized rebar for several years for concrete structures a decision was made to galvanize one direction of the new roadbed with epoxy coated rebar used in the opposing direction.

"Hot-dip galvanized steel rebar was a standout for its cost-benefit ratio."

The exceptional performance of rebar in this application as well as bridges with HDG rebar dating to the 60's still free of corrosion led to the decision to galvanize all the rebar in this new 8 km section of highway.

The corrosion caused expansion of steel rebar is the Achllies heel of concrete road construction, especially in areas where de-icing salt usage is widespread.  Hot-dip galvanized steel rebar was a standout for its cost benefit ratio.

Epoxy coating has now been de-specified due to very poor performance and non steel alternatives like stainless steel cost many times more than HDG and has no proven track record.  Fiberglass rebar is also very expensive to manufacture, can not be formed or modified on site and has very limited production capacity, it also does not have a proven track record.

The advent of after galvanizing bendable HDG rebar has been the key to the success of rebar galvanizing in Quebec and hot-dip galvanizing is now specified for many high corrosion apllications throughout our road infrastructure.      

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