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INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the results from an experimental program to investigate the effects of using Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) vertical strips epoxied to the webs of precast pretensioned I-girders. Vertical shear strips anchored by horizontal CFRP strips have been used to provide shear strengthening of 100 I-girders in the Champlain Bridge (see Fig. 1). The objective of this research project was to study the beneficial effects of using vertical and horizontal CFRP strips to enhance the performance of bridge I-girders in shear, particularly in light of some experimental results that indicated that I-girders experienced little shear strength gain when CFRP shear strips were added (Belarbi et al. (2011) and Kim et al. (2012)).