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Corrosion and Remediation for Bridges in Mexico RAFAEL SOTO-ESPITIA, Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, Morelos, Mexico JOSÉ ROBERTO VÁZQUEZ GONZÁLEZ, Caminos y Puentes Federales de Ingresos y Servicios Conexos, Morelos, Mexico SALVADOR ASCENCIO GUTIÉRREZ AND EDGAR MAYA, Centro de Innovación en Integridad de Infraestructura y Ductos, Morelos, Mexico LORENZO M. MARTÍNEZ DE LA ESCALERA AND JORGE I. CANTO IBANEZ, Corrosión y Protección Ingeniería S.C., Morelos, Mexico LORENZO MARTÍNEZ-GÓMEZ, Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, UNAM, Morelos, Mexico Tis study relates to Mexican transportation agency concern about infrastructure integrity, particularly regarding highway bridges. Tis article covers analytical and field work on corrosion diagnosis, solution development, and the monitoring of three bridges representative of past and emerging construction technologies. Age and seacoast proximity were two important factors affecting the reinforced concrete integrity. 66 MATERIALS PERFORMANCE November 2012 T he highway infrastructure in Mexico is expanding and evolv- ing rapidly. Medium and old construction, however, still rep- ZM[MV\ I [QOVQÅKIV\ XMZKMV\IOM WN \PM I[- sets for the country's overall mobility. Calls for attention to the need for corro- sion control of rebar steel and steel in general have occurred due to the collapse of bridges or costly investments in urgent repairs. This work addresses reinforced concrete components of three bridges that represent the ones existing in Mexico: old, medium age, and recent. The construction of cable-stayed bridges in Mexico is emerging; there are more than 10 bridges of this type, with one of the largest cable-stayed bridges in the Americas currently under construction. Scope of Study This study considers the Mezcala Bridge (Figure 1[a]), currently the second longest and tallest in Mexico, that was completed in 1993. The bridge is located at a distance of ~135 km (84 miles) from \PM KWI[\ WN \PM 8IKQÅK 7KMIV The second bridge is the Dovali Jaime Bridge (Figure 1[b]), located ~20 km (12 miles) from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The third bridge, the La Unidad Bridge (Figure 1[c]), is a plain concrete bridge built in 1982 over piles crossing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, in Isla Aguada, Campeche State in Southwest Mexico. Corrosion damage became ap- parent after just a few years of service, and the bridge has been subjected to many repairs and studies. Typical Failures Encountered The types of bridge failures that occur in Mexico are due to four main factors: fundamental design problems, constitu- ent materials issues, construction proce- dures, and operation under live loads. NACE International, Vol. 51, No. 11