This paper shows the results of three recent research projects aimed at improving the durability and at reducing construction costs of concrete bridges.In the first project a design method for bridge decks with a long service life was developed.It was proposed to build the bridge deck exclusively with encapsulated post-tensioning tendons and watertight anchorages.An arch bridge was built in Austria applying this new approach.The second project deals with the construction of free-formed concrete shells and the application of a new construction method without formwork and falsework.The idea of this new construction method is to build concrete shells with double curvature originating from an initially plane plate.A large scale experiment was carried out to show how an enlarged version could be used as a bridge structure for a deer pass.The third project is the development of the balanced lift method,a new bridge construction method developed at the Vienna University of Technology,which proposes to build the bridge girders in a vertical position and to rotate them in the final horizontal position with the aid of compression struts.