The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has released a report that develops bridge scour monitoring techniques using fiber optic sensors as a means to address the difficulty of inspecting bridge scour. Read the Report
The Mountain-Plains Consortium at North Dakota State University has released a report that considers the feasibility of creating an integrated structural health monitoring and impact/collision detection system for bridges in remote cold regions. Read the Report
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…
The Ohio Department of Transportation has released a report that evaluates different approaches to address premature bridge cracking through use of test parapets. Read the Report
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that identifies new techniques and equipment that can improve the quality of timber bridge inspection practices and can be implemented as part of the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). Read the Report
On February 20, 2015, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its fifth letter report to Gregory Nadeau, acting 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…
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…
TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R19B-RW-1: Bridges for Service Life beyond 100 Years: Service Limit State Design explores design codes critical for bridges to reach a service live of beyond 100 years. The report also addresses performance measures and design procedures that utilize criteria to maximize the actual life of a bridge system. The weigh-in-motion…
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General has released a report that details the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) efforts to improve bridge safety. Read the Bridge Safety Report
The Ohio Department of Transportation has released a report that discusses the cracking behavior of continuous span structural slab bridges in order to address bridge deck cracking issues and the service life of concrete bridges. Read the Report
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has released a report that documents the causes of biodeterioration of concrete surfaces and practices implemented to prevent and clean biofilm. Read the Report
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 Ohio Department of Transportation has released a report that investigates the applicability of vertical column support systems to improve subgrade and reduce settlements for existing roadways in Ohio. Read the Report
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 Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that investigates time- and temperature-dependent behavior of post-tensioned concrete bridges. Read the Report
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that describes a micro-structural evaluation of 50W weathering steel on bridges so as to understand and characterize the effect of the scribe markings on micro-structural evolution and mechanical properties. Read the Report
Roads & Bridges, November, 2014 Forgive those in charge of maintaining the nation’s steel bridges for thinking the sky is falling—they’re just trying to take advantage of the newest technology that could save their charges. That technology, StopCrackEX, is based on a technique known as cold expansion, which traces its origins back to the aerospace industry in the mid-1960s….
Better Roads, 16 December 2014 Brian Ethridge Construction of the new Tappan Zee bridge halted on Tuesday after silos collapse. | Photo: Times Herald-Record. Construction of the Tappan Zee bridge was shut down on Tuesday following the collapse of silo structures on the floating concrete batch plant. “Tappan Zee Constructors today shut down operations of both floating concrete…
The Mountain-Plains Consortium at Colorado State University has released a report that documents and assesses the role of building information modeling (BIM) implementation for use in infrastructure asset management. Read the Report
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a tech brief that identifies research and development needs of its foundation characterization program—a program that develops and evaluates methodologies for characterizing bridge foundations to determine unknown geometry, material properties, integrity, and load-carrying capacity. Read the Tech Brief
The Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin has released a report that provides an overview of an instrumentation program conducted on the world’s first precast network arch bridge. Read the Report
The Virginia Department of Transportation has released a report that develops and validates structural design guidelines and details for concrete bridge decks with corrosion-resistant reinforcing bars. Read the Report
Contact us for more information.
