Development of the northeast extreme tee (NEXT) beam for accelerated bridge construction

The bridge technical committee of PCI Northeast has recently developed a standard for a new beam called the northeast extreme tee (NEXT) beam. The goals of this new section are to provide a fast construction option for variable-width bridges with spans up to 90 ft (27 m).The section resembles a standard double-tee except that the stems are wider to handle the moment and shear demand for bridge loads. The top flange of the beam is thin and is intended to provide formwork for a cast-in-place concrete deck, which is intended to save substantial time during construction. The beam was designed to be easy to fabricate, which will inevitably lead to lower bridge costs. This paper focuses on the committee's work in developing the beam and summarizes the design criteria and how the committee accomplished those goals.