Tom Warne Report, 18 May 2013 Associated Press – May 14, 2013 SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s $6.3 billion eastern portion “has a fighting chance” of opening by the end of the year, in spite recent structural concerns, officials overseeing the construction reported Tuesday. State lawmakers grilled officials in charge of the project and their decision…
The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas-Austin has released a report that evaluates Texas U-Beams including measurements of their concrete curing temperatures in square and skewed end blocks and establishment of the vertical shear capacity of their standard section loads.Read the Report Read the Report
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that evaluates the feasibility of x-ray radiation, ground-penetrating radar, and magnetic flux leakage for detection and quantification of corrosion of embedded reinforcing steel. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 197: Guidelines for the Load and Resistance Factor Design and Rating of Riveted and Bolted Gusset-Plate Connections for Steel Bridges explores the failure modes of steel truss bridge gusset plated connections. The report also includes a review of past literature on the strength of hot-driven rivets. The following appendices are…
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that discusses research programs that evaluate and quantify the effects of serviceability, behavior, and capacity of pretensioned concrete girders in different end region detailing schemes. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 26 April 2013 The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has released interim revisions to the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 6th Edition.The new interim includes revisions to five of the 15 sections of the current LRFD Bridge Design Specifications: Concrete Structures, Steel Structures, Aluminum Structures, Buried Structures and Tunnel Liners, and Railings. The 184-page…
The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin has released a report that discusses optimizing reinforcement in the cast-in-place concrete placed on bridge decks and identifying ways of controlling cracking in precast, pre-stressed bridge deck panels. Read the Report
TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R06G has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Mapping Voids, De-bonding, Delaminations, Moisture, and Other Defects Behind or Within Tunnel Linings that identifies techniques that appear to provide useful information for evaluating tunnel linings. Read the Pre-publication
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to develop procedures to (1) determine the acceptable levels of bridge foundation movements based upon superstructure tolerance to total and differential movements considering service and strength limit states, and (2) propose revisions to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Load Resistance Factor Design…
AASHTO Journal, 19 April 2013 Michigan’s New International Trade Crossing hit another milestone last week after obtaining a federal permit needed to move the project forward. The bridge is expected to enhance the $70 billion-per-year trade relationship between Canada and the State of Michigan. “This is all about jobs for today and tomorrow,” Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said in…
Concrete Repair Bulletin, March / April 2013 International Concrete Repair Institute Article by Lorella Angelini According to the National Bridge Inventory, there are more than 600,000 highway bridges in the United States. Most of these bridges (98%) are owned by state and local governments, whereas the remaining 2% are federally or privately owned. The average age of these bridges…
The Maryland State Highway Administration has released a report that presents a framework for developing a system that tracks, records, evaluates, analyzes, and reviews soil slope failure and remediation data by using a GIS database and a collective overlay of maps. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 441: High Performance Concrete Specifications and Practices for Bridges documents the types of specifications and practices used by state transportation agencies to produce high performance concrete for bridges. The report also identifies specifications and practices reported as having improved concrete performance and those that have been less successful. Read the NCHRP Synthesis…
Crain’s Detroit Business, 12 April 2013 Artist’s rendering of the New International Trade Crossing bridge as seen from the Windsor side. Gov. Rick Snyder today called the $2.1 billion New International Trade Crossing a gateway for “jobs today and tomorrow” after the U.S. Department of State issued a key permit for what would be a second bridge over the…
AASHTO Journal, 12 April 2013 California Department of Transportation last week broke ground on an interchange project in Monterey County that will cut down on the area’s congestion while also making the area safer for drivers. Caltrans’ $69 million project will remove three intersections on U.S. Highway 101 and replace them with a new interchange, located near Red Barn…
AASHTO Journal, 12 April 2013 Rhode Island Department of Transportation officials joined Gov. Lincoln Chaffee last week to announce the launch of an I-95 bridge preservation program that will help to keep the bridges on the interstate in good shape for a longer period of time, ultimately saving taxpayer dollars. RIDOT said the program’s goal is to “address issues…
“Crosscut Public Media”, 12 April 2013 If state lawmakers want us to weigh in on a proposal (and taxes) to fund new transportation projects, they better make sure the plan includes fixing our crumbling roads and bridges. Read the Article by Douglas B. MacDonald, Washington State Secretary of Transportation, 2001-2007
TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R19A has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Design Guide for Bridges for Service Life that provides information and defines procedures to systematically design new and existing bridges for service life and durability. Read the Pre-publication
AASHTO Journal, 5 April 2013 An oil tanker that broke free from the pier at which it was docked floated along the Piscataqua River and ran into the Sarah Long Bridge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Monday, causing structural damage to the bridge. The crossing serves as a major connection between New Hampshire and Maine and the bridge will…
The New Zealand Transport Agency has released a report that presents an assessment of the New Zealand pre-tensioned concrete bridge stock and identifies bridges at risk of pre-tensioned reinforcement corrosion. Read the Report
The Louisiana Transportation Research Center has released a report that evaluates the applicability of the Federal Highway Administration’s Hydraulic Engineering Circular documents method to Louisiana bridges situated on cohesive soils as a way to develop a design method for scour depth and scour rate prediction. Read the Report
The Louisiana Transportation Research Center has released a report that explores the viability of an advanced grid stiffened /fiber reinforced polymer tube encased concrete column as an alternate design for columns or piles. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 440, Performance-Based Seismic Bridge Design (PBSD) summarizes the current state of knowledge and practice for PBSD. PBSD is the process that links decision making for facility design with seismic input, facility response, and potential facility damage. The goal of PBSD is to provide decision makers and stakeholders with data that will…
Tom Warne Report, 8 April 2013 Sacramento Bee – April 2, 2013 The California Department of Transportation announced this week that it is looking into whether the large bolts that broke last month on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project had not passed quality control test by the department’s materials lab. Dyson Corp. of Ohio manufactured the bolts which…
Tom Warne Report, 2 April 2013 San Francisco Chronicle – March 27, 2013 The discovery of broken bolts on part of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge is putting extra pressure on bridge officials working toward the opening of the $6.4 billion project in just five months. Caltrans toll bridge program manager Tony Anziano said they intend…
AASHTO News, 19 March 2013 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), commends the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for its comprehensive assessment of the nation’s current infrastructure conditions and needs. The 2013 Report Card finds that inadequate investment has resulted in deteriorating U.S. infrastructure. “This Report Card accentuates the need for a…
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….
Tom Warne Report, 8 March 2013 New York State Thruway Authority – March 5, 2013 The project manager well known for the quick replacement of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis has been hired to manage one of the largest bridge projects in the U.S. The New York State Thruway Authority has announced Peter Sanderson as project manager for…
Tom Warne Report, 8 March 2013 Saint Paul Pioneer Press – March 4, 2013 Transportation officials have announced the winner of a contract to build the foundation of the new St. Croix River bridge south of Stillwater. Edward Kraemer and Sons of Plain, Wis., was awarded the $36.7 million contract this week, according to Jon Chiglo, Minnesota Department of…
AASHTO Journal, 8 March 2013 Officials from the North Carolina Department of Transportation were joined by Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez to update the public on the progress of the I-85 interchange project in Charlotte. The $92 million interchange (including $50.6 million of federal funding), which aims at cutting traffic congestion on I-77 and many local streets, has already…
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