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…
Tom Warne Report, 22 March 2013 The Seattle Times – March 15, 2013 The new head of Washington state’s transportation department announced this week that she has hired an expert to review the I-5 Columbia River Crossing, Highway 520 bridge and Highway 99 tunnel. Secretary Lynn Peterson announced that the former director of two of those projects, Ron Paananen,…
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…
The Reason Foundation has released a report that discusses the condition of the United States’ roads and bridges based on data from the Highway Performance Monitoring System, the National Bridge Inventory, the Fatal Accident Reporting System, and the Texas Transportation Institute’s reports on urban congestion. Read the Report
On February 19, 2013, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its third 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 Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2313 discusses 21 papers on topics including general structures; steel bridges; concrete bridges; field testing and nondestructive evaluation of transportation structures; tunnels and underground structures; culverts and hydraulic structures; structural fiber-reinforced polymers; and critical transportation infrastructure protection. Read TRR Journal Number 2313
TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a project brief that summarizes SHRP 2 Renewal projects that are designed to help transportation agencies deal with the unique challenges that rapid highway renewal techniques present. The brief describes tools that agencies can use to mitigate worker and manager fatigue, develop and apply performance specifications, manage risk and…
The Montana Department of Transportation has released a report that investigates the efficacy of a new procedure developed to design concrete filled steel tube (CFT) piles to concrete pile cap connections. Read the Report
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