On March 21, 2013, HC Bridge will receive the Charles Pankow Award for Innovation from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for development of the hybrid composite beam (HCB®) for highway and railway bridges.
John Hillman, president of HC Bridge, credits the success of his technology to the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) programs.
The HCB improves the speed of construction, has an estimated service life of more than 100 years, and weighs approximately one-tenth of a typical precast concrete beam of the same span length.
TRB Executive Director Robert E. Skinner, Jr., believes that the award not only confirms the value of the IDEA program, but also underscores the importance of transportation research more generally.
