Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-09-017
Date: September 2009

FHWA Launches Information Exchange for Bridges

Come join the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) new online Information Exchange for Bridges (IEB) at knowledge.fhwa.dot.gov/cops/ep.nsf/home. Launched by FHWA's Highways for LIFE program and Office of Bridge Technology, the site offers information on innovative products and processes for bridge construction, including details on preparing project descriptions, specifications, and construction drawings. Also featured are the text and construction drawings from FHWA's recently released Connection Details for Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems manual (see June 2009 Focus).

As the IEB is designed to be an electronic sharing library, visitors to the site are encouraged to submit their own documents for posting. Documents can be submitted in the topic areas of fabrication/construction, joints, substructure, and superstructure, as well as various subtopics (select the topic area and then click on "Submit a Reference"). Each document is peer reviewed before posting and assigned a rating indicating its general acceptance by industry reviewers.

"The information sharing aspect of the IEB is a great way for innovative designs and technologies to gain exposure and be refined," says Charlie Goodspeed, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire.

"The world of accelerated construction is evolving from day to day. Each year, more departments of transportation are developing designs for prefabricated bridge elements and systems," notes Mike Culmo, Vice President of Transportation and Structures at CME Associates, Inc., in East Hartford, Connecticut. "The IEB will be a fluid resource that can provide practicing engineers with up-to-the-minute information on bridge technology. It has the potential to be a living version of the FHWA Connection Details manual, which will be beneficial to engineers as this technology evolves."

For more information on the IEB, contact Robert Strobel at the University of New Hampshire Technology Transfer Center, 603-862-4348 (email: robert.strobel@unh.edu). To download a copy of Connection Details for Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (Pub. No. FHWA-IF-09-010), visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/prefab. For more information about the Connection Details manual, contact Vasant Mistry in FHWA's Office of Bridge Technology, 202-366-4599 (email: vasant.mistry@fhwa.dot.gov). To learn more about Highways for LIFE, visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl.

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