According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, one in three bridges needs repair or replacement, amounting to more than 200,000 bridges across the country. A key culprit of America’s aging infrastructure is rebar that has accumulated rust, which cracks the concrete around it, making bridges more likely to collapse.
Allium Engineering, founded by two MIT PhDs, is tripling the lifetime of bridges and other structures with a new technology that uses a stainless steel cladding to make rebar resilient to corrosion. By eliminating corrosion, infrastructure lasts much longer, fewer repairs are required, and carbon emissions are reduced. The company’s technology is easily integrated into existing steelmaking processes to make America’s infrastructure more resilient, affordable, and sustainable over the next century.
To accomplish that, Allium adds a thin protective layer of stainless steel on top of traditional steel rebar to make it more resistant to corrosion. About 100,000 pounds of Allium’s stainless steel-clad rebar have already been used in construction projects around the U.S., and the company believes its process can be quickly scaled alongside steel mills.