AT FIRST glance the 46-metre road bridge into Asturias airport in northern Spain looks just like any other. Concrete columns support its four spans and it is topped with a standard concrete deck. But hidden beneath the deck, and supporting it, is a revolutionary feature: instead of sitting on traditional steel-reinforced concrete beams, the deck rests on beams made of lightweight carbon-fibre composite.
For Necso, the company that built the bridge, and the regional government of Asturias, which paid for it, the economics of carbon composites are compelling. Although the composite beams cost several times as much as the conventional…
