AASHTO Journal, 7 August 2015 The South Dakota Transportation Commission has scheduled an Aug. 27 hearing to adopt rules that will govern a new $15 million annual grant fund to target local roadway bridge needs, with the grant request handled through the state Department of Transportation. That Bridge Improvement Grant fund was included in a wide-ranging transportation funding law…
The Washington State Department of Transportation has released a report that discusses changes made to its concrete specification for bridge decks in an effort to reduce early-age restraint cracking. Read the Report
The Oregon Department of Transportation has released a report that evaluates the cyclic performance of a reinforced concrete square column and bridge bent that reflect subduction zone earthquake demands. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Report 156: Novel Coating Technology for Improving the Corrosion Resistance and Mechanical Properties of Reinforcing Steel in Concrete explores the development of a new coating technology with improved corrosion and mechanical performance as compared to existing commercially available coatings used for reinforcing steels. The coatings may extend…
AASHTO Journal, 24 July 2015 Two major roadway projects in Alaska were cleared to advance their planning this month, after the administration of Gov. Bill Walker lifted an order that had stopped spending on the development work, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. Walker had taken office Dec. 1 amid a time of stress for oil-dependent state finances as…
AASHTO Journal, 24 July 2015 When fast-moving storm waters undermined a desert bridge in California and led to its July 19 collapse, the disruption to traffic on Interstate 10 quickly rose in concern both for that state and Arizona and became a rallying point on the U.S. Senate floor for a new highway bill. Within days, the U.S. Department…
Austroads has released a report that identifies differences in Australian and New Zealand road agencies’ bridge deterioration modelling and prediction tools for improving the scheduling of maintenance and replacement works. This report is available for no fee after logging onto the site. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 17 July 2015 The Michigan Department of Transportation said it will replace a pedestrian overpass bridge in Detroit that was destroyed last September by an over-height truck strike, with the help of about $2.9 million in Federal Highway Administration emergency funds. The accident, which left the truck driver dead, pulled the bridge down onto the Southfield Freeway…
AASHTO Journal, 17 July 2015 The Federal Highway Administration published a final rule for national tunnel inspection standards, which will be the basis of its first standardized tunnel inspection program. This effort will be modeled after what the FHWA said is its “successful bridge program established nearly a half-century ago to ensure the safety of the nation’s bridges.” U.S….
The Iowa State University Institute for Transportation has released a report that presents a literature review on long-term monitoring of bridge systems and applications, the prototype hardware of these systems, and methodological issues. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 10 July 2015 The Ohio Department of Transportation has hired a contractor to quickly replace a major Interstate 70 bridge at Columbus, after it was destroyed July 1 when a tanker truck hauling ethanol overturned underneath that span and set off an intense fire. The U.S. Department of Transportation is providing $1 million in “quick release” funds…
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
The Oregon Department of Transportation has released a report that identifies and demonstrates a methodology to prioritize bridges for retrofit by prioritizing the inventory and enumerating the cost. Read the Report
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 Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that evaluates the performance of several concrete coating alternatives based on AASHTO specifications and on their performance on in-service bridges. Read the Report
The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has released a report that discusses the utility of air-launched ground penetrating radar for assessments of bridge decks. Read the Report
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that presents a study on the recently-developed air-coupled impact-echo (IE) nondestructive testing method in which microphones replace the traditional physically-coupled IE sensors for testing concrete on bridge decks. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 15 May 2015 The Washington State Department of Transportation is relying on deep sea divers to replace aging cables on the Interstate 90 floating bridges across Lake Washington, connecting Seattle and Bellevue. The $3.4 million safety and preservation project that began May 11, WSDOT said, will see specially trained contractor crews from Orion Marine replace 21 “frayed…
The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin has released a report that evaluates the strength and serviceability of post-tensioned girders loaded in shear, including how a post-tensioning duct located in the web of a girder affects the shear transfer mechanism of a bulb-tee cross-section. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 1 May 2015 The Federal Highway Administration has begun collecting new data from state departments of transportation to more closely monitor bridge conditions throughout the nation. Each year, state DOTs provide bridge inspection information to an FHWA national database by the end of April, and starting this year that includes more detailed “element-level” descriptions of conditions. “Smart…
Better Roads, 29 April 2015 Chris Hill The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will begin gathering new data on bridges that will report conditions down to the square foot surface area, rather than simply the overall condition. The “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” (MAP-21) Act requires this shift in data collection. As opposed to the previous overall…
Better Roads, 29 April 2015 Bobby Atkinson The massive Left Coast Lifter places a pier cap in its first job for the new Tappan Zee Bridge project. Photo Credit: Peter Carr/The Journal News One of the largest cranes in the world was finally put to use in the Hudson River on Friday as it made its first lift in…
The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin has released a report that analyzes the feasibility and effectiveness of a lightweight noise barrier on a highway segment that has presented noise problems for the adjacent neighborhood. Read the Report
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that considers coating technologies for steel components in highway bridges to identify those that would provide corrosion durability of the components and reduce inspection and maintenance costs. Read the Report
The Missouri Department of Transportation has released a report that presents the behavior of hollow-core fiber reinforced polymer concrete-steel bridge columns under combined axial-flexural and vehicle collision loads. Read the Report
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