Nicolas Bardou is Technical Director of the Planning Department of Vinci Autoroutes – Vinci Groupe, Cofiroute Network.
Nicolas Bardou was, from 2000 until 2011, Production Engineer and Project Director mainly in airport, motorway and high-speed railway works, in France and Portugal (Spie Batignolles & Eiffage Companies).
From 2012, Nicolas is in charge of the civil engineering Department for the Cofiroute network (Vinci Autoroutes), responsible for the bridges programme from the owner perspective. He is also responsible for the bridge management system, being in charge of the bridges, tunnels and structures asset management Department for Cofiroute (1300 bridges and 13km of tunnels). Simoultaneously, he is responsible for the bridges policy, survey, maintenance, research programs on DEF & scouring at Vinci Autoroutes.
From 2018, Nicolas is the CTO of the Asset management strategy in Vinci Autoroutes context.
Abstract
Ultra High-Performance Fibre Reinforced Shotcrete for Soil-Steel Structures Repair Works
From the beginning of the 70s till the end of the 90s, a large number of soil-steel structures with a diameter of up to 6m were installed along the majority of the French road infrastructures. This kind of structures was particularly appreciated for their low costs and for the fast installing works. They generally enabled the restoration of waterways and roadways.
Nevertheless, the use of these soil-steel structures mitigated their advantages: the structures, made of galvanised steel, were particularly sensitive to corrosion. When this physico-chemical phenomenon is too advanced, the metallic pipes lose their structural characteristics and eventually collapse. Some of these breakdowns made a mark on French civil engineering literature. Therefore, extensive repair and replacement campaigns have been under way since the late 90s.
Different repair processes of the soil-steel structures exist: formwork concrete, shotcrete or composite-made shells. Each of these techniques presents some advantages and major disadvantages. A recently developed process combines the structural efficiency of the Ultra-High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (Béton Fibré Ultra-Haute Performance, BFUP) and the flexibility of the sprayed concrete procedure. This new process, both complex and promising, resolves most of the constraints of the more traditional techniques.
After a few phases of development in laboratories then of tests in small projects without criticality, several experiments have been conducted in real implementation conditions and on large-scale infrastructures. The works for one of these experimentations will be detailed in the presentation. Finally, this process, with a few adaptations, could certainly be used in repairing or reinforcing different kind of civil engineering structures.
This LiveTalk is available in YouTube.
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