back | contents | next

Pilot Workshop on the Seismic Retrofit of Truss Bridges

• Tim Ingham presents course material during the Pilot Workshop on Truss Bridges

Missouri State Bridge Engineer Shyam Gupta welcomed engineers from California, South Carolina, New York and other states to the Pilot Workshop on the Seismic Retrofit of Truss Bridges, sponsored by MCEER with support from FHWA. The pilot course was held in St. Louis on December 12-14, 2005. FHWA Contract Officer Phil Yen was on hand to address the group and Glenn Smith, FHWA, offered a summary of various standards and publications available to agencies. Jerry O’Connor gave a brief report on the status of the AASHTO T-3’s development of new guidelines for the seismic design of new bridges.

The pilot workshop was presented by T. Y. Lin International, Inc. based on a new set of guidelines they developed for MCEER. The guidelines, which will be available in early 2006, will provide DOT’s and consulting engineers with advice on assessing an existing bridge’s vulnerability, determining a retrofit strategy for the bridge, analyzing individual structural members demand and capacity, and detailing specific measures to improve seismic performance. Principal Investigator Tom Ho delivered the workshop with co-authors Chuck Seim, Roupen Donikian and Tim Ingham. I. Po Lam, Earth Mechanics Inc., contributed lectures on geotechnical concerns and cited other MCEER publications that are available for evaluating and addressing foundation issues.

For more information on this topic, contact Jerry O’Connor, MCEER Senior Program Officer, Transportation Research at jso7@buffalo.edu.