Bridging the Use, Innovation, Life, and Durability of Concrete (BUILD Concrete)

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is seeking proposals for the Bridging the Use, Innovation, Life, and Durability of Concrete (BUILD Concrete) project. The goal is to accelerate the implementation of next-generation binder technologies into engineering practice while ensuring proper durability and improving infrastructure integrity. The FHWA is looking for market-ready binders to be benchmarked against an industrially produced Class A concrete with a target 28-day compressive strength of 4000 psi. The project aims to address the challenges of diminishing sources of conventional supplementary materials and seasonal shortages of silica fume and ground-granulated blast furnace slag. • The project involves benchmarking the performance of solutions that have achieved a suitable technology readiness level. • The benchmarked performance is to be limit-state based, considering strength limit state, service limit state, and codified characteristic behaviors and material properties. • The technologies of interest include geopolymers, chemical-based strength enhancers, recycled or reclaimed waste products or supplementary cementitious materials, novel binder chemistries, and novel synthesis or production methods.