Bridging the Gap Between Inspections and Decisions
Bridge safety hasn’t always been top of mind for legislators in the United States. The impetus for creating standards and collecting information on how structurally sound the bridges in this country was the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967, which spanned the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, WV, and Kanauga, Ohio. The tragedy claimed the lives of 46 people and caused the federal government to quickly mandate regular bridge inspections through the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS)...
Self-Propelled Bridges: Offsite Superstructure Construction Reduces Interruption
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is in the midst of a major project to rebuild the I-94 North-South freeway, one of the state’s most frequently used roadways. The freeway is being widened to eight lanes from the Wisconsin/Illinois border to Milwaukee, with new bridges and interchanges along the full 35-mile stretch. In addition to this freeway work, frontage roads and main arteries are being reconstructed and moved. In total, 17 interchanges are being completely redesigned,...
Overcoming Challenging Suspension Bridge Design and Engineering
Long-span suspension bridges represent some of the most remarkable, yet most vulnerable, assets in road networks. Due to their important role in the transportation network, the design, construction, and subsequent monitoring and maintenance must be performed very accurately. During the design process, bridge designers must consider and meet many challenges, including the highly non-linear behaviour of the structure, the optimization of the geometry of suspension cables, and the effects of wind....