Almost 7 years ago one of our Local Authority Clients issued a tender for a project that required a new simply supported 8m single span bridge of 1m width with a standard anti climb parapet.

A variety of typical bridge construction types were permitted including steel, timber and an alternative using Lifespan resin infused FRP composites.

With input from the Client additional considerations were made as to the likely cost and regularity of maintenance works for each of the possible bridge types in order to ascertain a whole life cost for each of the options.

The conclusions of the exercise were that the timber bridge was the lowest capital cost option with the shortest maintenance period and that the steel bridge would have very significant maintenance and replacement costs through its lifetime.

A simple summary of the results was then presented in graphical form highlighting that the Lifespan composite bridge had a significantly lower whole life cost compared to all other solutions over the 60 year period - the benefits now would be even greater as all Lifespan structures have a anticipated design life of 120 years.

BD90/05 Bridleway CD368 Composite CPD CUR96 Footbridge FRP Composites Lightweight Pedestrian PROW Steel Footbridge Timber Footbridge vehicle bridge Wooden Footbridge