Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-06-019
Date: October 2005

FHWA Sponsors Summit on Unknown Bridge Foundations

State-of-the-art technologies for characterizing unknown bridge foundations, as well as strategies for managing these foundations and the associated risk, will be featured at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Unknown Foundations Summit, to be held November 15-16, 2005, in Lakewood, Colorado. According to FHWA's National Bridge Inventory, more than 80,000 bridges nationwide have unknown foundations.

The summit will provide a forum for discussing techniques available to manage bridges with unknown foundations, and for evaluating the capability, reliability, and probable cost of nondestructive methods for determining unknown bridge foundation components. The summit's objectives also include developing guidance and management strategies for State transportation departments and other bridge owners based on the outcome of the meeting.

Summit sessions will include such topics as "Unknown Foundations and Their Impact on Retrofitting Bridges," Strategies for Dealing with Unknown Foundations," and "Nondestructive Technologies and Unknown Foundations." Case studies will also be presented by various States.

The event is designed for State transportation department and Federal personnel, bridge owners, university researchers, consultants, and vendors of nondestructive evaluation technologies. There is no cost to attend the summit, but space is limited. Interested participants must therefore preregister at www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/hydraulics/scourtech/unknown.cfm. For more information, contact Khamis Haramy at FHWA, 720-963-3521 (email: khamis.haramy@fhwa.dot.gov); Cynthia Nurmi at FHWA, 404-562-3908 (email: cynthia.nurmi@fhwa.dot.gov); or Jorge Pagan at FHWA, 202-366-4604 (email: jorge.pagan@fhwa.dot.gov).

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