NYTimes.com: Building a Bridge of (and to) the Future

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Carbon- and glass-fiber fabric tubes filled with concrete offer strength, light weight and resistance to corrosion.

"Long the stuff of surfboards and pleasure boats, and more recently used in aircraft wings and other components, plastic polymers reinforced with fibers were first researched for use in bridges in the 1980s. Civil engineers were attracted to them for the same reasons other designers were — their strength, light weight and corrosion resistance."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/13bridge.html

Though more expensive to create, the technology makes the bridge less expensive in the long run, due to lower maintenance, transportation, labor and equipment costs.