A Case for High-Performance Concrete

Various high-performance concrete materials with excellent strength, durability and barrier qualities are now available to us. Examples include high-strength concrete and ultra-high-performance concrete. Their initial costs tend to be higher than normal concrete. Concrete materials, however, account for a minor fraction of the total construction costs of most infrastructure systems. Adoption of high-performance concrete thus does not have a notable effect on the initial cost, but significantly benefits the service lives and reduces the maintenance costs of diverse infrastructure systems.