Environmental and economic benefits of UHPFRC intervention in bridge management for the Swiss network.

[en] Current infrastructure management frameworks typically involve replacing bridges at the end of their intended service duration or when significant structural deficiencies arise, resulting in high costs and environmental impacts. Novel structural-strengthening methods using ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composite (UHPFRC) have allowed the preservation of hundreds of bridges in several countries. Their service duration has been extended, and their performance has been improved to match that of a new structure. Examining the Swiss federal network (3903 bridges), it is found that interventions using the UHPFRC method are feasible on more than 99.7% of structures, demonstrating that the structural intervention can be technically applied to most bridges in this network. On the given case study, systematically applying the UHPFRC method would lead to savings of up to 7.7 MtCO2eq, and 18.5 billion CHF over the next 80 years compared to current engineering practice. This study highlights the significant potential of systematically implementing the UHPFRC method for sustainable and cost-effective infrastructure management.

Disciplines :

Civil engineering

Author, co-author :

BERTOLA, Numa Joy ; University of Luxembourg

Küpfer, Célia ; Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada ; Structural Xploration Lab, Institute of Architecture, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Fribourg, Switzerland

Brühwiler, Eugen ; Institute of Civil Engineering, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Environmental and economic benefits of UHPFRC intervention in bridge management for the Swiss network.

Publication date :

04 February 2026

Journal title :

Nature Communications

eISSN :

2041-1723

Publisher :

Springer Science and Business Media LLC, England

Volume :

Issue :

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69103-x

Available on ORBilu :

since 27 February 2026

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