Blast furnace slag cement and high strenght concrete possibilities and experiences in bridge engineering practice in the Netherlands : bijdrage aan: International Conference on Engineering materials Ottawa, Canada, 8-11 june 1997

Since 1992 experience has been acquired in the application of HSC with the strength classes C57 to C92 (B65 to B105 in the Netherlands) in bridge engineering practice. Investigative studies indicated that C57 is interesting for massive and hollow slab viaducts. Spans which needed (until now) a box girder construction (C40) can be simplified to a much cheaper slab (C75). For balanced cantilever construction with main spans up to 190 m, C75 is the optimal choice. These strength classes are put into practice since 1995 for the mentioned bridge types. Suitable mixtures are developed, regarding the following points: the cement content should be as possible in order to minimise the hydratation temperatures; the BFSC (3 65% slag) part should be large as possible in order to minimise the hydratation temperatures and to obtain good resistance against alkali silica reactions; the contractors must be able to make their own choices concerning the availeble raw materials and mixing proces; workability of the concrete mix should allow pouring the various bridge types in the usual way.