The American Society of Civil Engineers has given America’s Infrastructure an overall score of D+ in its 2017 Report. Roads and bridges were given scores of D and C+ respectively. Read the Full Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a pre-publication, non-edited version of Synthesis 505: Current Practices and Guidelines for the Reuse of Bridge Foundations. A sustainable option for many bridge replacement and rehabilitation efforts is reusing bridge foundations, which can result in time and cost savings as well as reduced mobility impacts and environmental benefits. However,…
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that introduces a model that aims to more accurately estimate design and cost efforts for bridges. Read the Report
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has released a report that investigates the behavior of two long prestressed concrete girders during lifting and transportation from the precast yard to the bridge site, with a particular focus on cracking concerns during transport. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 497: Post-Extreme Event Damage Assessment and Response for Highway Bridges reviews the procedures that state departments of transportation and two local authorities, New York City and Los Angeles County, use to assess the damage in bridges in response to extreme events and conduct emergency response activities. Extreme events include those…
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to develop a reliability-based methodology to design electrical, mechanical, and traffic/marine safety elements and systems for movable highway bridges in order to propose revisions to the AASHTO LRFD Movable Highway Bridge Design Specifications. Proposals are due February 7, 2017. Read the RFP
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Report 157: Development of an Intrinsically Conducting Polymer-Based Low-Cost, Heavy-Duty, and Environmentally-Friendly Coating System for Corrosion Protection of Structural Steels explores the use of Intrinsically Conducting Polymer for developing a more cost-effective, heavy-duty, and environmentally-friendly two-layer coating system to replace the conventional zinc-rich three-coat system for…
Austroads has released a report that outlines a process for assessing road bridge capacity for High Productivity Freight Vehicle access to the road network. The report is available for no fee after logging onto the site. Read the Report
The Washington State Department of Transportation has released a report that analyzes the underwater sound levels of marine pile driving when using a double-walled pile. Read the Report
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a technical summary that aims to help engineers ensure the safety of Minnesota bridges, make cost-effective maintenance decisions, and process overload permits for heavy trucks. Read the Tech Summary
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to develop proposed AASHTO LRFD bridge design guidelines for hybrid bridge of A709 and ASTM A1010 steel and develop guidelines for hybrid superstructure fabrication. Proposals are due February 1, 2017. Project: Project Information Read the RFP
AASHTO Journal, 02 December 2016 Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan unveiled a $765 million plan to replace an aging, two-lane toll bridge spanning the Potomac River on US 301 with a four-lane structure from Charles County in the state’s southeast to King George County, Va. Hogan made the announcement Nov. 21 while standing at the base of the 75-year-old Harry…
TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2592 consists of 18 papers that explore transportation structures, including: Evaluation of AASHTO Suggested Design Values for Reinforced Concrete Bridge Piers Under Vehicle Collisions Practical Implementation of Stability Bracing Strength and Stiffness Guidelines for Steel I-Girder Bridges Structural Redundancy of Prestressed Concrete Box Girder Bridges Design of…
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to propose draft AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications and AASHTO LRFD Bridge Construction Specifications for design and construction of DBT girder bridges using UHPC for connection. Proposals are due January 31, 2017. Project: Project Information Project Number: 18-18 Read the RFP
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that compares the economic impact of designing pre-tensioned prestressed concrete beam bridges utilizing the continuity developed in the bridge deck versus the Iowa Department of Transportation’s method of utilizing standardized spans treated as simply supported. Read the Report
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that investigates the accuracy of existing shear distribution factors, which are used to estimate bridge system live load effects on individual girders, and provide recommendations on shear distribution to be used in Minnesota. Read the Report
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) program has issued the inaugural issue of the LTBP News. The newsletter is designed to highlight current developments and activities related to the program. Read LTBP News
The Maryland Department of Transportation has released a summary document that describes the application of Ground Penetrating Radar research for assessing the condition of bridge decks. Read the Summary Document
Better Roads, 28 September 2016 Kerry Clines These open-ended pipe piles, about 100-feet long and two feet in diameter, will be used to test a type of bridge pile often seen in offshore applications, research that could help reduce the cost of bridge building or replacement of aging spans. Purdue University photo/Erin Easterling) Rod Salgado, a…
AASHTO Journal, 30 September 2016 Arizona drivers who have been anticipating a new bridge to carry US 95 traffic over flood-prone Fortuna Wash near Yuma don’t have much longer to wait. The state Department of Transportation said the bridge that will end rain delays there should begin taking traffic by the end of November. ADOT said final work should…
The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota University has released a report that presents a new method to determine the damage location information of a bridge. Read the Report
The California Department of Transportation has released a report that analyzes the behavior and lateral load resisting mechanisms of external shear keys in bridge abutments, and develops reliable analytical methods for evaluating the load capacity of shear keys. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 819: Self-Consolidating Concrete for Cast-in-Place Bridge Components presents recommended guidelines for the use of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) in cast-in-place highway bridge components. These guidelines address the selection of constituent materials, proportioning of concrete mixtures, testing methods, fresh and hardened concrete properties, production and quality control issues, and other aspects of…
On July 5, 2016, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its seventh letter report to Gregory Nadeau, administrator of the U.S. 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…
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to propose modification to the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications to provide quantitatively based guidance on cross frames. Proposals are due November 1, 2016. Read the RFP
AASHTO Journal, 26 August 2016 Officials of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and Maine Department of Transportation said Aug. 24 they had to permanently close the malfunctioning Sarah Mildred Long Bridge to motor vehicle traffic more than two months early. The 76-year-old lift bridge connects Portsmouth, N.H., and Kittery, Maine, on the US 1 Bypass over the Piscataqua…
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that evaluates various instrumentation plans and introduces alternative analysis methods specific to auger-cast piles. Read the Report
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that revises the existing methodology for computing the bridge health index (BHI). Read the Report
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 14 August 2016 Leah Thorsen The strong push for a new bridge over the Missouri River in Washington, Mo., began in earnest after the collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis. That was back in 2007, on Aug. 1 to be exact. Bob Zick ticks off the date without hesitation, remembering the day he knew…
AASHTO Journal, 12 August 2016 Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas officials participated in a groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 8 to launch a $930 million construction project to build a new Harbor Bridge over the Port of Corpus Christi’s main turning basin. When completed – mostly by April 2021 – planners say the new structure will provide 205-foot clearance over…
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