This past Wednesday, professional engineers crowded into the Center for Composite Materials to learn more about rapid bridge replacement techniques. Though initially snowed out and rescheduled two weeks latter, we had a great turnout just the same.
The evening started out with networking over pizza and sandwiches, then the time came for attendees to take their seats and for the presentations to start. Dr. Christopher Meehan of University of Delaware Civil Engineering went first, explaining the innovative Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Integrated Bridge System (GRS-IBS) his lab built back in 2013. A high density of sensors was included in the abutments, with sensor survivealbility and data noise reduction well explained.
Next was DelDOT State Bridge Engineer Jason Hastings, who gave an overview of all the Accelerated Bridge Construction techniques being incorporated into projects within the state of Delaware. Within this nuanced overview was an overarching theme of planning a project to reduce the inconvenience to the ‘traveling public’. Thank you to everyone who came out, and hopefully everyone enjoyed learning more about rapid bridge replacement techniques!