Stronger Longer
Like many older concrete bridges, the Sierrita de la Cruz Creek Bridge, a 1957 crossing near Amarillo, Texas, suffered from concrete deterioration. When the Texas Department of Transportation...
Bell's Bridge Rehabilitation
Bell's Bridge carries Tidewater Drive, a major urban arterial in the City of Norfolk, Virginia, over Wayne Creek, a tributary of the Lafayette River. During a routine inspection in 1995,...
Seismic Design of Highway Bridges: Recommended Specifications
Under the AASHTO-sponsored National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), a joint venture of the Applied Technology Council and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering...
Magnetic Perturbation Imaging for Prestressed Concrete Evaluation
Many prestressed concrete bridge structures in the United States and other parts of the world are over thirty years old and have shown various signs of distress. Corrosion or fracture...
Cross-Frame and Diaphragm Behavior in Skewed Bridges
The author examines the existing specifications and guidance for bracing provisions by AASHTO, AISC, and TxDot, and the need for developing bracing requirements....
Maintenance of Diaphragm-Girder Connections
Fatigue cracking at diaphragm-girder connections and at similar connections of cross-frames and floorbeams have been common in steel highway bridges for the past 20 or 30 years. Fatigue...
New Concepts in Structural Strength Assessment for Large Buildings in Fire
This paper presents theoretical descriptions of the key phenomena that govern the behaviour of composite framed structures in fire. These descriptions have been developed in parallel with...
High Performance Dampers for Bridges
A multi-disciplinary research study investigates the use of shape memory alloys as seismic dampers in bridges. Shape memory alloys are a class of alloys that display several unique characteristics,...
Seismic Analysis and Retrofit of the Amoskeag Bridges
In 1983 AASHTO first offered the design guide for seismic analysis of bridges, which ultimately became a permanent part of the AASHTO Bridge Design Manual in 1990. Prior to this time,...
Rehabilitation of the Packers Falls Bridge
The Packers Falls Bridge was constructed in 1912 and consists of a 42' (12.8m) single span, reinforced concrete arch structure. This bridge was constructed using a unique forming system...
Evolution of Composite Floor Systems in the United States
Composite floor systems, which combine structural steel beams with a cast-in-place concrete slab, have grown in popularity in the U.S. during the past 40 years. In most early applications,...
Cyclic Behavior of Three-Dimensional Partially-Restrained Composite Connections
This paper describes the test of a full-scale, bi-directional, PR composite beam-to-column connection. The PR connection consisted of continuous reinforcement bars across the column and...
Piece by Piece
The Lions' Gate Suspension Bridge, a landmark structure in Vancouver, British Columbia, marks the entrance to one of the busiest harbors on the west coast of North America....
Fast Forward
Under the aegis of the French government, the Soci�t� Nationale des Chemins de Fer Fran�ais (French National Railway Society), or SNCF, has built two new bridges, each approximately 1,100...
Holding Steady
The San Diego�Coronado Bay Bridge is an unmistakable landmark that frames the skyline of downtown San Diego, providing a vital link between the mainland and the Coronado peninsula. The...
Sharp Curves
In Madison, Mississippi, just north of Jackson on Interstate 55, a diamond interchange with State Route 463 has become a bottleneck for commuters and local motorists. But the typical solution�a...
Competitive Edge
A new design system called the simplified economical bridge design (SEBD) makes steel cost-competitive with concrete for short- and medium-span bridges for the first time. In fact, a comparative...
Composites Enhance Timber Bridges
Two relatively new technologies are available for reinforcing or strengthening timber bridges with fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs). The first consists in reinforcing the tension side...
Extended Life Span
The Harlem River Lift Span�part of New York City's Triborough Bridge System�was the largest vertical span in the country at the time of its construction in 1936. The lift...
High-Tech Inspection
The Federal Highway Administration's National Bridge Inspection Program requires the states to report the condition of its bridges as determined by visual inspection, and...
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