Aging Bridges
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Research helps rehabilitate older steel bridges.
Aired October 15, 2007
2 minutes (1.8 MB) | Download mp3
Transcript
Pioneering research is extending the lives of aging steel bridges.From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I'm Brendan Lynch.
Long before the deadly collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, the University of Kansas Fatigue and Fracture Research Group was working to prevent catastrophic failures. The Group is headed by Stanley Rolfe.
Stanley Rolfe: "We still don’t know what happened in Minneapolis It took everyone by surprise. It’s a more of a wake up call that we need to spend more time, more effort and more money on maintenance of older bridges."
A nationally recognized expert, author and distinguished professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, Rolfe heads a team of KU investigators dedicated to bridge safety.
Rolfe: "What we do is try to blend our research and our teaching to understand the behavior of steel bridges so we can help the profession implement better design rules better control so we do not have fractures or fatigue failures in our bridge structures."
The group teams with the Kansas Department of Transportation to design repairs and retrofits to older steel bridges. The research has national impact.
Rolfe: "We can compare actual field measurements to predicted computer analysis and measure experimental results in our lab, and of course when all three agree, we’re pretty certain we know what is happening. And based on that information then we can make recommendations to the state foe extending the life of their bridges."
And in the process, the KU group saves Kansas taxpayers a bundle of money. The latest example os the Tuttle Creek bridge, on K-16, north of Manhattan.
Rolfe: "We have made recommended changes to that bridge which in total are about 7 million dollars. That saved them from making a new bridge which would have cost about 45 million dollars."
For more on bridge fatigue and fractures, log on to Research Matters DOT K-U DOT E-D-U. From the University of Kansas, I'm Brendan Lynch.
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Preeminent KU research group safeguards bridges in Kansas and beyond
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Fatigue and Fracture Research Group was extending the lives of steel bridges long before the shocking Aug. 1 collapse of the Minneapolis I-35W Mississippi Bridge.
