Bridge design & engineering

✳️Entries are now open for #BridgesAwards2025! Bridges Awards 2025 will be celebrating the sheer ingenuity, project management and cooperative skills of the people behind the design, construction and maintenance of pedestrian, highway and rail bridges. Get your submissions early: https://lnkd.in/dd2jce-J ✳️2025 Categories: 🔹The Bridges Design Award 🔹The Bridges Construction Award 🔹The Bridges Award for New Life 🔹The Bridges Management Award 🔹The Bridges International Award 🔹The Bridges Ethos Award 🔹The Bridges Sustainability Award Find out more about sponsorship opportunities: https://lnkd.in/dszGHF5N

Day2 of #BridgesScotland 2024, prelunch session: Solene Fercocq representing the Net Zero Bridges Group spoke about how #carbon can be reduced throughout the lifecycle of assets and #bridges: - early collaboration is vital for effective #carbonreduction on projects - system-wide view is really key to identifying the carbon reduction opportunities that would have the biggest impact - dare to challenge the brief when an idea to avoid or improve part of a project would achieve #sustainability gains - continuous improvement: knowledge sharing is vital to allow industry-wide learning, so industry participants can improve on solutions and make better informed decisions According to a presented #carbonreduction hierarchy, the 3 strategies that should be considered are: × avoid (avoid unnecessary interventions, features or overdesighning) × switch (consider if reuse or repurposing are options instead of new bridges/foundations/materials etc.) × improve (build on existing sustainable solutions and approaches) - adaptation and carbon reduction should be considered jointly and as integrated approaches - Consider nature-based solutions that replace grey built structures with green structures and systems - Such solutions directly benefit nature and deliver value to society by addressing critical challenges at the systems-level as opposed to asset-level #bridgeengineering #bridgedesign #bridgeconstruction #netzero

Day2 of #BridgesScotland 2024, prelunch session: Adarsh Varma, Technical Director for Economics at WSP, spoke about #climate risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis: - A cited Network Rail case study has determined adverse weather events have increased in frequency and intensity even over the last two years - the overwhelming range of possible solutions and responses can cause stress and hesitation when decision-making - a WSP-developed #climatechange risk assessment identifies and scores what are the risks - European guidance looks at the cost-benefit of climate adaptation, including information on assessing the cost losts from weather events at national level - adaptation to improve climate #resiliency would reduce the amount of delayed trip payments to rail users in addition to wider social benefits #climaterisks #climateadaptation #climateresilience #bridgeengineering #railbridges #assetmanagement

Day2 of #BridgesScotland 2024, morning session: Nicola Tweedie, Principal Advisor for Suicide Prevention at National Highways England talked delegates through how the risk of #suicides can be reduced on #roads and #bridges: -"Sucide prevention is everybody's business" - Good design can make a crucial difference - Risks should be considered from the outset - an expert panel including relevant bodies and academics has helped research how the #transportsector can help prevent suicides - a new toolkit was developed to overview different intervention types - Tweedie debunked common myths, including that preventing suicide at one location rellocates the issue, citing research that restricting access to attempts at one location reliably lowers the overall number of incidents with rellocation rarelly being a concern - National Highways staff and those of suppliers have been trained to recognise relevant signs - changing public perceptions was cited as key part of a robust prevention strategy - for #bridges: retrofitting to restrict access to risks is an important step - suicide risk and mitigation should be embeded in the #bridgedesign process for new crossings - A guideline on prevention on bridge projects is under development and expected to be published in the near future #bridgeengineering #bridges #assetmanagement #suicideprevention

Day2 of #BridgesScotland 2024, morning session: Kevin Dentith BSc CEng FICE, Technical Director of WSP presented an upcoming update to the Inspection Manual for Highway Structures aimed at young engineers and inspectors to help them learn what to expect and do on sites, supporting daily operations. - the guide will be digital with quick access links to facilitate use - #weatheringsteel and #polymers sections now added - a whole chapter been added on fibre reinforced polymer #FRP - the guide contains 13 chapters - the last chspter is the "Inspector’s Handbook" whick can be taken individually on site to aid daily work - the guide also features new examples and case studies, including on wingwalls, retaining walls and bearings *Next, the guide is to be shared with industry stakeholders for feedback before being published #bridgeengineering #bridgeinspection #bridgeengineers #bridgeinspectors

Day2 of #BridgesScotland 2024 opened with the announcement of a new Joint Approach for Reporting Precursor Events and Element Failures by Hazel McDonald, Chief Bridge Engineer of Transport Scotland and Paul Livesey, Scheme Manager of Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures (CROSS): - main goal of scheme is to promote, facilitate and enable information sharing and the dissemination of lessons learned from #bridgecollapses #bridgefailures and noticed bridge issues - this will enable #bridge incident prevention by way of early detection - the CROSS reporting process allows industry practitioners to submit a report to the their website - the initial report cannot be anonymous but is treated confidentially 👉 the information is anonymised before being shared with the CROSS expert panel for investigation and published as lessons learned - all efforts are taken to remove identifying details so work focuses on understanding and sharing information about issues that pose a risk - CROSS deletes any identifiable information from their database when the lessons learned report is published - CROSS also shares safety alerts about risks determined to be of concern to bridges at large - All published reports and safety alerts can be accessed for free on CROSS's website #bridgeengineering #bridgeconstruction #bridgedesign #assetmanagement

Day1 of #BridgesScotland 2024 closed with a Pecha Kucha session where 7 brave speakers presented talks in just 10 slides that advanced automatically in 20 seconds - not for the faint of heart! The special TEN/20 session featured: Laura Jones of Acrow Bridge: 10 Unusual modular bridging Projects from around the World! John Huxtable of Dewesoft: My Adventures With Bridges and Instrumentation Ian Matheson CSSW of Five Star Construction Products Pty Ltd: Engineering Your Success with Precision Grouts and Concrete Repair Solutions for Challenging Applications and Environments Steven Dunn of Lifespan Structures - FRP Bridges: Why not do something different using an FRP bridge? Doug Hamlin of MARKHAM - UK & Europe: Adding life to concrete; Francesca Fuser of Pilosio “From REACTIVE To PROACTIVE” NO WAY BACK! The Italian case-study Prof. Fin O'Flaherty of Sheffield Hallam University: Bridge Inspector’s Training Courses #bridgeengineering #bridges #bridgeconstruction #assetmanagement

That's a wrap for Day 1 at #RoadExpo & #BridgesScotland. We're back again tomorrow from 09:30-16:00 at SEC Glasgow, in partnership with Transport Scotland. Thank you to everyone today who helped us #KeepScotlandMoving. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🙌

Day1 of #BridgesScotland 2024, afternoon session: How #modularconstruction can accelerate #bridge delivery was examined by John Armitage of Ramboll and Musa Chunge of Laing O'Rourke. The UK's #HS2 high-speed rail line was used as a case study of how modular #bridgeconstruction can reduce timings and labour in onsite works. Main advantages of the approach include reduced costs and increased onsite productivity. A National Highways England road project was another case study on the achieved efficiencies. #Parametric approach to design allowed the project teams to obtain early information that helps to optimise plans and solutions, smoothing the interfaces between different stages. A key recomendation is to involve all stakeholders (owner, designer, contractor, etc.) as early as possible to maximise the achievable gains. The approach was reported to enable the development of site-specific solutions while also harnessing the benefits of industrial off-site technology and techniques. #bridgeengineering

Day1 of #BridgesScotland 2024, afternoon session: Alan Hutchison, manager of the #TayRoadBridge, explained how the crossing is being refurbished: - the bridge was built in 1966 to carry 3,200 vehicles daily, but was being crossed by 25,000 vehicles weighting up to 44t every day by 2019. - an intervention was needed to ensure the bridge could cope with modern traffic volumes and needs - the joints detoriated due to wear - the refurbishment had to account for environmental constraints - extensive concrete repairs were carried out underdeck - the project team uncovered that the original joints mismatched - the #waterproofing revealed footstep marks left during the original #construction - any extra deadloading had to be avoided during surfacing - the #bridge was resurfaced with deformation resistant material #bridgeengineering #bridgerefurbishment #assetmanagement