During the period after the collapse of the I-35W BRIDGE in Minnesota, the National Cooperative Highway Reset Program(NCHRP) published a synthesis about bridge management system and decision making that need to be applied across the country. The collapse has awakened public and private agencies in charge so that they begun a new era characterized by paying much attention on their career. A synthesis made by The National Cooperative Highway Reset Program (NCHRP) and lead by Markow and Hyman showed programs and system that need to be put in place in order to reshape bridges management for the sake of program performance. The point at issue is to see why it were important to implement those programs and also analyze its content in order to see whether the report were informative enough to instruct the targeted people.
First, the United States is the first country worldwide to own a powerful transportation system the rest of the world takes as a model. This brought significant accomplishment on state level and nationwide and made sustainable development possible in United State. Second, this success is never a simple process but instead it is a result of a combination of many components in an engineering background that need to feet together in order to enable engineers to design such wonders (Ratay). Among those components the following seem to be the main pillars: good education in structural engineering, years or even decades of experience in analysis design, construction, testing, inspection, condition assessment and trouble shooting, an understanding of design construction processes, comprehension of legal implication, good communication skills, a knock of problem solving and positive attitude to teamwork (Ratay). By analyzi...
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... successful Design.
New York: First Vantage Books Edition.
Ratay, R. (2009). Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook.USA: Mc Graw-Hill Companies.
Main source
Markow, M.J & Hyman, W.A (2009). NCHRP Synthesis 397: Bridge Management System
for transportation agencies Decision Making. Washington D.C: Transportation
Research Board.
Other cited sources
Landis, B.A (2007). Studying Engineering: A Road Map to a Rewarding Career.
Los Angeles, CA: Discovery Press.
National Transportation Safety Board (2007, August 1). Highway Accident Report:
Collapse of I-35W Highway Bridge. Washington, D.C
Petroski, H. (1992, April).To Engineer is Human: The role of failure in successful Design.
New York: First Vantage Books Edition.
Ratay, R. (2009). Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook.USA: Mc Graw-Hill Companies.
The enormous responsibility that an engineer has when designing a project is often overlooked. His or her job is not only to create a design that will work under ideal conditions, but that will meet the regulations of environmental and building codes and will also survive the unpredictable forces of nature that structures are sometimes subjected to. An article in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, "Structures are Held up by Both Skill and Luck,"1 describes many risks involved in the designing process and the failures that can occur when small details are overlooked. In light of a recent surge of failures in the Northwest, the article says:
The first and most challenging problem associated with building the Mackinac Bridge arrived long before the bridge was even designed. Financing such an enormous project was no easy feat. In 1928, the idea of connecting the upper and lower peninsulas was proposed to Congress for the first time (Brown 4). At the time, the suspected bridge project was very much under government scrutiny and control. In fact, the initial boost in interest in pursuing the construction of a bridge came about due to the depression. The Public Works Administration (PWA) had been created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal economic plan which would fund certain construction projects with th...
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
Hargreaves, Steve. "The High Cost of America's Bad Roads and Bridges." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
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The engineering design process helped my two partners and I through this project. First, we identified the problem of needing to hold weight from the center of the bridge. Next, we established a very detailed design of our bridge and how much total wood was needed to build it. After spending much time on the design, we built the design. The building of the bridge took a long time to do and took much precision. Next we tested it and presented it all at one time. We realized what we could do to improve it if we ever do it again and what design flaws that we
The SPHE meeting had a guest speaker Jacob Elias, a structures field engineer who works for Balfour Beatty Construction. He’s working on the Dallas Horse Shoe Project and graduated from UTA with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2013. He talked about his line of work, his duties, responsibilities, and the main steps in constructing the Downtown Dallas remake of IH-35E and IH-30. He also discussed what he learned from his experience as a student as well as a professional in the field. He ended with some major advice for students and future engineers.
Projects developed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) go through a planning process that includes the determination of the project’s schedule. To determine the schedule, highway construction projects are divided into several activities and the time management of these activities will define the project’s duration. In order to improve the productivity and facilitate the execution of the project, an effective planning is needed. An organized Work Breakdown Structure can enhance the project duration. However, there are certain unexpected and unavoidable factors, which can delay the project’s termination: (1) Conflicting Weather Conditions (2) Temperature, (3) Project’s location, and (4) Workers’ shifts.
The type of plug-in urban design product can be varied in the extent of the infrastructure provided. In terms of urban links, it is not just the roadway or other means of access that are provided. It can be highways or roads, heavy- or light-rail links, cy...
The bridge we chose to select for our research paper is the Blue Water Bridge. The Blue Water Bridge spreads across the St. Clair River and conducts international traffic between Port Huron, Michigan, and Point Edward and Sarnia, Ontario. According to the Michigan Department of Transportation, “Located near the I-94 and I-69 interchange, the bridge forms a critical gateway linking Canada and the United States”. The Blue Water Bridge consists of tolls and inspection plazas on each side of the border where individuals pay for crossing and communication with inspection offices such as Immigration or Customs. The original Blue Water Bridge opened in 1938 and it was renovated in 1993. This bridge is a three-lane westbound bridge. The second
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Quinn, R. (2008). Building the Bridge As You Walk On It. In J.L. Pierce, & J.W. Newstrom (Eds). The Manager’s Bookshelf (pp 233-236). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Like all engineers, architectural engineers apply the theories and principles of science and mathematics to research and develop economical solutions to technical problems. Their work is the link between scientific discoveries and commercial applications. Engineers design products, machinery to build those products, factories in which those products are made, and the systems that ensure the quality of the product and efficiency of the workforce and manufacturing process. Engineers design, plan, and supervise the construction of buildings, highways, and transit systems. They develop new materials that both improve the performance of products and help implement advances in technology. Engineering knowledge is applied to improving many things, including the quality of health care, the safety of food products, and the efficient operation of financial systems.
Transportation Engineering deals with the planning, design, construction, traffic operation and evaluation of streets, highways, airports, and transit systems.