AASHTO Journal, 25 April 2014 Bertha, the world’s largest boring machine tasked with tunneling under downtown Seattle for the new State Route 99, will not resume her job until March 2015, Washington State Department of Transportation officials announced this week. The machine, which is creating the tunnel as part of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, had been placed in…
AASHTO Journal, 25 April 2014 Last week, officials from Kentucky and Indiana joined to re-open a half-mile bridge just one week after sliding the entire bridge laterally into place over the Ohio River, the longest bridge in North America to do so. The $103 million Milton-Madison Bridge, which was slid 55 feet from temporary supports onto its new piers…
AASHTO Journal, 25 April 2014 Just in time for summer construction season and only months from a looming Highway Trust Fund insolvency issue, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association this week released data that show the health of bridges across the nation depend on HTF funds to remain in operation for the public. ARTBA analyzed data released by…
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that explores procedures for determining bracing forces during bridge construction and examines wind load coefficients (drag, torque, and lift) for common bridge girder shapes with stay-in-place (SIP) form work and overhang form work in place. The report also includes recommended global (system) pressure coefficients (e.g., for strength design of substructures)….
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a tech brief that explains how two chloride threshold values of 0.4 and 0.8 percent by weight of cement were determined for corrosion initiation and corrosion propagation of bridges. Read the Tech Brief
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 201: Calibration of AASHTO LRFD Concrete Bridge Design Specifications for Serviceability explores calibrating the service limit states related to concrete bridges in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Load Resistance Factor Design Bridge Design Specifications (AASHTO LRFD). A limit state is defined as the boundary between acceptable…
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) has published NCHRP Synthesis 453 – “State Bridge Load Posting Processes and Practices”. Read NCHRP Synthesis 453
The Eastern Seaboard Inter-modal Transportation Applications Center at Hampton University has released a report that explains how acoustic emission monitoring can be used to assess corrosion and other deterioration in highway bridges so as to perform maintenance, rehabilitation, and repair. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 28 March 2014 Tennessee Department of Transportation officials last week were on hand to celebrate the opening of a bridge that will more easily connect two communities after years of planning. TDOT last weekend opened the new $29.5 million SR 109 bridge, allowing one lane in each direction to carry vehicles across the span, which connects the…
This study evaluated various techniques that use mechanical waves for the evaluation of critical concrete properties, such as proper consolidation of the concrete during placement and strength development; changes in modulus; and the detection of cracks, voids, and delaminated regions. The methods evaluated were ultrasonic shear-wave tomography, ultrasonic pulse velocity, crosshole sonic logging, sonic echo-impulse response, spectral analysis of surface…
The Louisiana Transportation Research Center has released a report that explains the installation and performance of the first fiber reinforced polymers-wrapped balsa wood bridge in Louisiana. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 21 March 2014 A report released this week by the Indiana Department of Transportation shows that a major bridge project, constructed in partnership with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, will not only better connect the two areas and provide greater mobility, but also infuse $87 billion into the local economy and add 15,000 jobs to the area. The…
The Missouri Department of Transportation has released a report that explores non-destructive techniques for bridge deck assessments through using ground-coupled penetrating radar. Read the Report
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a study that explains guidelines for the design and construction of mass concrete placements associated with large bridge foundations. Read the Study
Austroads has released a report that develops a traffic adjustment factor by updating and re-analyzing the loading effect of heavy vehicles on seal surfacings. Read the Report
Austroads has released a report that reviews the current Australian Standard Bridge Design guidelines for bridge load capacity assessment as a possible means to improve freight productivity. Read the Report
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released a tech brief that defines long-term bridge performance (LTBP) and discusses the importance of measuring bridge performance and practices. Read the Tech Brief
The Region 2 University Transportation Research Center at Columbia University has released a report that considers an approach that provides in-situ characterization of waste classification for removal of paint from bridges and other structures. Read the Report
The Region 2 University Transportation Research Center at Columbia University has released a report that presents results of a study that develops a damage detection methodology for bridges based on Statistical Pattern Recognition. Read the Report
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a report that discusses development of optimized sections of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) pi-girders as a way of utilizing the mechanical properties of UHPC over longer span lengths. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 14 February 2014 Officials at the Washington State Department of Transportation updated the public this week on its progress in getting the tunneling machine beneath downtown Seattle back to work. The world’s largest boring machine, which had been tasked with creating the new SR 99 tunnel underneath Seattle as part of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program,…
AASHTO Journal, 14 February 2014 New York State Department of Transportation officials joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week to announce that the agency had concluded work on all bridges included in the accelerated bridge improvement program, NY Works. The $212 million NY Works program was created in the 2012-2013 state budget to “address bridge deck and structural replacement or…
AASHTO Journal, 14 February 2014 Officials from the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Illinois Department of Transportation, and federal transportation officials recently celebrated the opening of a bridge that reduces congestion, provides a faster route for commuters, and allows for greater safety. IDOT and MoDOT opened the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge on I-70 in St. Louis to traffic…
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that discusses the behavior of six in-service, horizontally curved, steel-girder bridges with integral and semi-integral abutments. Read the Report
On January 27, 2014, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its fourth letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The committee provides advice and assistance on the conduct of the LTBP program, which is designed to collect research-quality data on a large representative sample of in-service U.S. highway bridges and to analyze these…
TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Reliability Project R19B has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Bridges for Service Life beyond 100 Years: Service Limit State Design that explores design codes critical for bridges to reach a service live of beyond 100 years. The report also addresses performance measures and design procedures that utilize…
AASHTO Journal, 17 January 2014 Officials from the Texas Department of Transportation and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development joined forces this week to break ground on a bridge replacement project that will enhance safety on a vital connection between the two states. The two state transportation departments have begun are replacing the U.S. 84 Sabine River Bridge,…
The Washington State Department of Transportation has released a report that examines the perceived costs and benefits of routine washing of both steel and concrete bridges, with an emphasis on substructure seats and bridge decks. Read the Report
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a tech brief that reviews research on non-destructive testing and sensing technologies of bridges so as to provide an assessment of their cable conditions. Read the Technical Brief
AASHTO Journal, 10 January 2014 The Rhode Island Department of Transportation recently took home an award for the design of its Pawtucket River Bridge, completed last September. RIDOT received the Honor Award from the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for the design of the bridge. One of the organization’s most prestigious awards, the Honor Award…
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