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  4. Re:Crete - A Footbridge made of Reused Concrete Blocks
 
conference paper

Re:Crete - A Footbridge made of Reused Concrete Blocks

Devènes, Julie Rachel  
•
Brütting, Jan  
•
Bastien Masse, Maléna  
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Romo, José
September 7, 2022
Footbridge Madrid 2022 - Creating Experience
Footbridge 2022: Creating Experience

Today, concrete is the most widely used construction material worldwide. Strong, versatile, durable, and vector of economic development, this exceptional material is also the principal cause of greenhouse-gas emissions, material depletion and waste generation by the construction industry. Hence, reusing concrete elements extracted from obsolete building structures has large potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of construction. To demonstrate the potential of such an unusual strategy for bridge construction, this paper shows the construction of the Re:Crete arch prototype. It is made of 25 reclaimed concrete blocks connected through post-tensioning to create a 10-m span arch. The complete design-and-build workflow of the prototype is presented, including the structural design of the arch, the sourcing of the reusable concrete elements and the assembly. The Re:Crete arch prototype mechanical properties and environmental impact are assessed through non-destructive investigation, load testing and Life-Cycle Assessment. The results show that the reuse of concrete blocks leads to a comparable structural behaviour as a similar arch made of new or recycled concrete, with an environmental footprint reduced by more than 70%.

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Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Devènes, Julie Rachel  
Brütting, Jan  
Bastien Masse, Maléna  
Küpfer, Célia Marine  
Fivet, Corentin  
Editors
Romo, José
Date Issued

2022-09-07

Publisher

Asociación Española de Ingeniería Estructura

Publisher place

Madrid

Published in
Footbridge Madrid 2022 - Creating Experience
Total of pages

8

Subjects

reuse

•

concrete

•

post-tensioning

•

existing structures

•

structural design

•

circular economy

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
SXL  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Footbridge 2022: Creating Experience

Madrid, Spain

September 7-9, 2022

Available on Infoscience
August 30, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/190455
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