Durability of silica fume concrete in Aursundet Bridge

Aursundet Bridge (1995) is a cantilever type of concrete bridge in a harsh marine environment on the west coast of Norway. For the most exposed parts of the bridge, a concrete with 12.5% silica fume by weight of the portland cement was applied. Since this silica fume content was much higher than that previously used for bridge construction along the Norwegian coastline, it was desirable to find out how such a high-volume silica fume concrete would resist the chloride penetration from the local marine environment. Both after three and ten years of exposure, a number of concrete specimens were removed from the splash zone of the concrete columns for investigation of chloride penetration. During construction of the bridge, a number of concrete specimens had also been separately produced for further exposure at the NTNU Field Station in Trondheim harbor. In the present paper, the results of all the investigations so far are reported.