About

The Concrete Bridge Engineering Institute (CBEI) is the center of concrete bridge-related research, education, and training at The University of Texas at Austin within the Cockrell School of Engineering. Our mission is to serve the concrete bridge community and profession on the most pressing issues encountered across the Nation. This is accomplished through facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships, conducting research which melds engineering practices, and developing unique educational and training opportunities for preparing the current and future generations of our concrete bridge workforce. The Concrete Bridge Engineering Institute is established to serve as a national concrete bridge industry resource, partnering with other leading agencies, researchers, and stakeholders with the goal of addressing issues encountered in concrete bridges and work toward implementing plans to ensure the reliability expectations are met for concrete bridges.

Three specific needs were identified: (1) Post-tensioning Laboratory to provide hands-on training for field installers and inspectors as well as testing and verifying promising post-tensioning technologies.  (2) Deck Construction Inspection Program to ensure proper initial construction of concrete bridge decks utilizing full-scale hands-on components. (3) Concrete Materials Program for Bridges to provide guidance on the proper selection and use of constituent materials to improve the service life of concrete bridges, sustainability of concrete construction, and provide examples with the consequences of these aspects being neglected.