Bridging Gaps—Structures Team Plays Key Role in Conferences Held in Virginia and Maryland
Over the past 2 months, the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Structures Technical Service Team has played a key role in three conferences held in the Mid-Atlantic States.
4th Annual Concrete Conference: Virginia
 March 10-11, 2005, the Virginia
Concrete Conference was held in
Richmond. This 4th annual event
drew more than 200 people to a
general session and breakout sessions
related to concrete structures
and pavements. Structures topics
included various corrosion protection
and prevention methods, bridge
aesthetics, prefabricated bridge
elements, and splicing prestressed
concrete girders. The FHWA Resource
Center's exhibit staff distributed
concrete pavement marketing products,
and bridge High Performance Concrete
(HPC) items that had been produced
by the FHWA HPC Technology Delivery
Team. These included CDs of the
March 2005 HPC Guide for Structural
Designers, CDs of the 2003-04 national
survey on HPC implementation, and
brochures describing the HPC Team
and its community of practice website.
Also included were CDs of a compilation
of early HPC bridge projects.
2005 FHWA Conference: Integral Abutment and Jointless Bridges Conference-Baltimore
 Next was a national conference on Integral Abutment bridges, where the High Performance Materials (HPM) specialist was a member of the steering committee that developed and hosted the event. More than 200 people attended this March 16-18, 2005, event in Baltimore. They were treated to interesting presentations on current practices with design guidelines and foundation design, several case studies, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation practices. A panel of State Department of Transportation (DOT) experts on the subject closed out the conference. Key issues were targeted for follow-up action by the steering committee. These included posting proceedings and presentations on a website, writing articles for trade publications, developing a new community of practice, verifying date from a national survey on the state of the practice, developing a NCHRP1 synthesis of practice, and updating an FHWA technical advisory on the subject.
5th Annual Concrete Conference: Maryland
Finally, the HPM specialist also was a member of the steering committee for the 5th annual Maryland Concrete Conference, held on April 6, 2005, in Frederick. This conference also drew more than 200 people to a general session and breakout sessions on general concrete technology, architectural concrete, concrete pavements, and transportation structures. The FHWA Resource Center's Structures Team member moderated the structures session, which included presentations on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project, prefabricated bridge elements for accelerating construction, and concrete bridge deck overlays.
For more information, contact:
Lou Triandafilou
High Performance Structural Materials Specialist
FHWA Structures Technical Service Team
(410) 962-3647
lou.triandafilou@fhwa.dot.gov
1NCHRP, National Cooperative
Highway Research Program |
