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DOTs Meet To Discuss Bridge Coatings
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and other state agencies representing
eight southeastern states gathered for the first Southeastern Bridge Coatings
Working Group meeting at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) on October
28. The Louisiana Department of Transportation hosted attendees from Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee,
and Virginia. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and
SSPC were also represented.
Presentations included an FHWA update from Bob Kogler and a
NEPCOAT update from PennDOT’s Dave Kuniega. Greta Smith and Derrick Castle
from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet gave a presentation on the NTPEP—Structural
Steel Coatings Test Initiative and the Virginia DOT’s testing program
that uses an inorganic zinc/acrylic/acrylic paint system. Mike McGough
of AASHTO updated the group on a database used by AASHTO in the NTPEP
program, and Wendy Ealding talked about the Virginia DOT program.
Henry Lacinak from the Louisiana DOT led the afternoon session
where the results of the following questions, sent to attendees before
the meeting, were
discussed:
- 1) What system(s) does your agency specify for shop and/or
field coating of structural steel?
- 2) How do you qualify
coatings for structural steel?
- 3) Do you perform field
verification sampling and composition testing of coatings
supplied to projects in your state?
- 4) Do you have a
process to assess field performance of coatings projects?
- 5)
Does your agency participate in the AASHTO/NTPEP testing
program?
In addition to addressing these questions, attendees
spent the afternoon reviewing the approval and
use of coatings systems with zinc
rich primers and acrylic finish coats. Many of
the states represented currently use the zinc-acrylic
systems. These states expressed
interest in reviewing performance data from a
standardized test protocol,
such
as the structural steel coatings evaluations
performed through NTPEP, as part of an approval process
for
coatings.
The agency representatives agreed that their
states had much in common and that they intend
to work to create a coalition
similar to the nine northeastern states that
form
the NEPCOAT
group. There are many
steps required to achieve the success that
NEPCOAT has had, but all the participants felt they
should
move in that direction,
especially during
these times of dwindling resources.
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