This study is part of a VDOT sponsored project focusing on repair techniques for impact damaged prestressed bridge girders. The investigation included evaluation of the repair installation and flexural strength of four AASHTO Type III girders that were intentionally damaged and repaired. In addition, nonlinear finite element modeling was used to aid in the development of design protocols for each repair method. This report discusses two of the three repair techniques. Three Master of Science students report on the project results: Justin Liesen, Mark Jones, and Michael Gangi. Liesen and Jones (2015) had responsibility for the installation and testing of the repaired girders and Gangi (2015) performed the finite element modeling of the girders.

Three repair methods were identified for experimental investigation: strand splice, bonded FRP, and FRCM. During this investigation the repair methods were evaluated by conducting six flexural tests on four AASHTO Type III girders. Flexural tests were conducted instead of shear tests because typical impact damage from overheight vehicles occurs around the mid-span and flexural strength dominated region of bridge girders. The cracking and failure moments for each test were evaluated and compared to predictions of the girder's behavior using AASHTO calculations, a moment-curvature diagram, and non-linear finite element modeling.