Stress Wave Timing, a Simplistic and Cost Effective Method to Evaluate Deteriorated and Repaired Timber Bridge Piles

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a simplistic and cost effective technique to evaluate deteriorated and repaired timber piles. Stress wave timing was conducted on two bridges. Nine deteriorated timber piles were extracted from a bridge on State Highway 76 in Oklahoma and evaluated at Oklahoma State University. The nine deteriorated timber piles were inspected for decay and were repaired using cost effective materials. An important objective was to correlate the amount of materials needed to repair the deteriorated piles to stress wave timing and physical dimensions. A second bridge was evaluated in a field inspection located in Cotton County, Oklahoma. Eleven of the twelve timber piles were repaired in-service and all were evaluated via stress wave timing. The objective was to observe if the repair technique was adequate and to see if the decay and voids were removed during repair.