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...
Redesigning the San Roque Dam
Engineers updated a 20-year-old design for the San Roque Dam in the Philippines to save time and money and improve the dam's ability to withstand earthquakes. The structure...
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...
A Framework for Performance-Based Seismic Design
The following probabilistic framework for seismic performance assessment is presented as an effective foundation for the development of performance-based guidelines. It suggests a generic...
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,...
Update of Serviceability Design Considerations for Low-Rise Steel Buildings
In 1990, the American Institute of Steel Construction published Servicability Design Considerations for Low-Rise Buildings by James M. Fisher and Michael A. West. This document was published...
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,...
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....
Returning to the Source
One hundred years ago, Las Vegas was a dry, dusty dot on the map with a population of only 100. The city grew up to become perhaps the gambling capital of the world, and more recently...
Small Firms, Big Dig
The local knowledge and technical expertise found in small engineering firms are often critical to the success of large projects. As one of the most comprehensive design and construction...
High-Tech Isolation
In the fast-paced world of telecommunications, the time to market is often the deciding factor in the success of an enterprise. With that thought in mind, AboveNet Communications, Inc.,...
The Pentagon Project
The renovation of the Pentagon, now under way, is one of the most ambitious, complex, and challenging construction undertakings in contemporary history. It entails the equivalent of demolishing...
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...
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