Abstract
The desire to reduce public and environmental impacts and accelerate construction has led many agencies to consider the use of precast substructure systems on bridge construction projects. Precast bent caps offer the advantage of improving quality and safety while also reducing construction time and impact to the environment. The National Cooperative Highway Research Program is funding Project 12-74, "Development of Precast Bent Cap Systems for Seismic Regions," to develop and validate promising precast bent cap systems and to generate design and construction specifications for use in all of the nation's seismic regions. A summary of results from a recent comprehensive survey of DOT officials, engineers, fabricators, and contractors is provided, including an overview of current precast bent cap usage throughout the world. A review of expected seismic performance, constructability, durability, and economics is presented for the details which have been proposed for further investigation in this project. An overview of future research activities including strut-and-tie models, beam-column tests, large-scale system test, and time-history analyses will be provided.