Better Roads, 03 July 2015 Bobby Atkinson A Dallas resident took his drone to the sky to capture the progress of the construction on the Margaret McDermott Bridge. The footage, featured by the Dallas Morning News takes a cinematic look at where the bridge is at in this phase of the project, which will provide an upgrade to the bridge which crosses…
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has released a summary that explains its efforts to develop safety standards for preventing falls from wooden platforms on bridge decks. Read the Summary
AASHTO Journal, 19 June 2015 Major transportation industry groups urged Congress to avoid letting a highway and transit bill become a victim of political faceoffs this summer, asking lawmakers instead to provide funding certainty for agencies depending on those programs and renewing their calls for long-term legislation. Associations representing state departments of transportation, transit agencies and construction firms pressed…
AASHTO Journal, 19 June 2015 The Obama administration is taking formal steps to commission an independent report with a fast turnaround time that would “identify the most significant transportation and water infrastructure projects that are under consideration across the country based on their potential economic impact.” The Treasury Department issued a formal solicitation June 15 for contractor proposals to…
AASHTO Journal, 19 June 2015 The chairmen of Senate and House committees charged with finding revenue to pay for federal highway and transit programs both said they are seeking action to replenish the Highway Trust Fund beyond its July 31 expiration, but emphasized the difficulties of putting together a financing plan. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs the Finance…
The Oregon Department of Transportation has released a report that evaluates a multi-parameter corrosion monitoring system for existing reinforced concrete structures on bridges in chloride-laden service environments. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 29 May 2015 Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, along with House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, unveiled a $700 million bonding plan for bridge improvements over the next decade that would cover the bond payments with new user fees on truck traffic. They called this “RhodeWorks” financing proposal “a bold action plan…
The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin has released a report that describes a research program developed to study cast-in-place (CIP) splice regions of spliced I-girders, practices that have been implemented in CIP splice regions, and design recommendations based on the structural performance of spliced I-girder specimens. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 17 April 2015 The New York State Department of Transportation and other agencies have begun work on a $15.6 million project to replace seven bridges in the Town of Keene that are at risk from flood scouring, part of 80 bridges approved so far for replacement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the…
AASHTO Journal, 17 April 2015 U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the Federal Highway Administration is issuing a $162 million low-interest, long-term TIFIA loan to help finance construction of the East End Crossing section of the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project. “This project will relieve congestion and stimulate the economy of the entire Louisville-Southern Indiana region both today…
The Mountain-Plains Consortium at the University of Wyoming has released a report that considers the geotechnical process associated with the failure of compacted earth, spill-through abutments, and spill-slope soil on abutment scour of bridges. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 3 April 2015 State and local transportation agencies during 2014 were able to remove more than 2,000 bridges from the nationwide list of those rated structurally deficient, but 61,000 are still in that category, said the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. The ARTBA analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory database said the…
TR News, January – February 2015, Number 296 “Our highway infrastructure took decades and generations of Americans to build and is simply too valuable to be left to languish.” An early champion for infrastructure preservation, Larry Galehouse managed maintenance programs at the Michigan Department of Transportation (DOT) long before starting the National Center for Pavement Preservation (NCPP). In the…
AASHTO Journal, 13 March 2015 The first use of a “bridge slide” construction technique by any tribal nation in the United States drew about 100 industry professionals from across the country to view the project at the Gila River Indian Community south of Phoenix. That technique, which is among the advances to come out of the second Strategic Highway…
AASHTO Journal, 23 January 2015 New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox has ordered a statewide review of about 600 structurally deficient bridges, and warned local officials that he could stop payments to them from a tapped-out state Transportation Trust Fund. A spokesman said Fox delivered the news while meeting Jan. 20 with local officials. Fox told them unless the state…
AASHTO Journal, 23 January 2015 Commercial truckers planning trips across Washington state can now use an online route-mapping software tool to know if their trucks will meet all vertical bridge clearance limits along the way. The Washington State Department of Transportation unveiled the online tool Jan. 15, noting that it was developed in the wake of the May 2013…
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that investigates the difference in bond strength and development length between galvanized reinforcing steel and epoxy-coated bars. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 9 January 2015 Scott Bennett, director of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department, said he has cut three 2015 highway projects worth $30 million from a Jan. 27 bid opening as he waits to see how and when Congress might replenish the Highway Trust Fund. Bennett, in a Dec. 23 press release announcing the action, said…
The Ohio DOT’s Office of Statewide Planning & Research in coordination with the Ohio LTAP Center are pleased to offer the following Research Results Presentation: Project Title: Evaluation of the Viking-Cives TowPlow for Winter Maintenance Researcher: Dr. William Schneider, Ph.D., University of Akron Date: January 16, 2015 Time: 9:00-10:30 AM (ET) Location: Room 1C – ODOT Central Office (Columbus,…
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that explains a sensor concept that could be used for detection of active corrosion in post-tensioned tendons used in segmentally constructed bridges. Read the Report
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a report that explains the potential of using ultra-high performance concrete-class materials to anchor or lap splice deformed reinforcing bars in field-cast connections as a means to simplify connection details in some prefabricated bridge systems. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 31 October 2014 Work to rescue and repair the world’s largest tunnel boring machine was suspended Oct. 23 on Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement project, after diggers of an excavation shaft toward the stalled machine found shell material. Initial reports said the discarded shells, found about 20 feet from the surface just days into the digging, could…
AASHTO Journal, 31 October 2014 Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch said the state DOT and a private-sector team called Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners will work together in a public-private partnership to replace 558 bridges. Under PennDOT’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Project, that private team must start construction next summer and complete all work in 36 months. The state retains ownership of…
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has issued a request for proposals to develop guidelines to improve the quality of element-level data collection for the National Highway System Bridges in reference to the AASHTO Manual for Bridge Element Inspection. Proposals are due by December 18, 2014. Project: Project Information Read the RFP
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 782: Proposed Guideline for Reliability-Based Bridge Inspection Practices presents a proposed guideline for reliability-based bridge inspection practices and provides two case studies of the application of the proposed guideline. The guideline describes a methodology to develop a risk-based approach for determining the bridge inspection interval according to the requirements in Moving…
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a report that supplements the existing knowledge base on stay cable vibrations and explains possible recommendations that may be incorporated into design guidelines. Read the Report
The Pew Charitable Trusts has released a report that examines contributions from the states, federal government, and localities to the funding of highway and transit programs. Read the Report
Austroads has released a report that demonstrates the development of an assessment framework to allow fast assessment of simply supported bridges by using a simple line model comparison approach. This report is available for no fee after logging on to the site. Read the Report
The Ohio Department of Transportation has released a report that describes a method for the overall condition assessment and load rating of prestressed box beam bridges based on their dynamic response collected through wireless sensor networks. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 29 August 2014 The Federal Highway Administration has made progress toward fully implementing safety provisions included in the 2012 MAP-21 surface transportation bill but the agency has much more to do, according to a new Office of Inspector General report released this week. According to the report, which was requested by House Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member…
Contact us for more information.
