A few years ago, I heard an MDOT engineer say on the radio that the cost to repaint a steel highway bridge was close to, or more than new construction cost, due to the environmental protection necessary to sandblast. I think this may be a major reason why steel isn't used as much as it used for such purposes.
I can't help but wonder about the life of pre-stressed concrete bridges like Zilwaukee or the I-280 bridge in Toledo. What do you do when they start to fail. With steel you can at least sandblast and weld.
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