Civil Engineering Central 2.0

In order to cast a wider net around the civil engineering community, CivilEngineeringCentral.com has fully integrated its brand to be fully compatible with the major Web 2.0 & social/business networking sites so you can stay up to date on all the latest “goings on” at CivilEngineeringCentral.com!

CivilEngineeringCentral.com has established the Civil Engineering Central Group on Linkedin. With nearly 2600 members to date, the goal of this group is to help members:

Reach a wide array of members of the Civil Engineering community (Civil & Structural Engineers, Civil Engineering Executives, Environmental Professionals, Construction Professionals, Land Surveyors, GIS Professionals, A/E Marketing Professionals, HR Professionals, Hiring Managers, Civil Engineering Students, Planners, Designers and all other members of the civil engineering community).

To share ideas, ask questions, provide answers, share stories, to make connections and to learn the utilization of our Discussion Board & Blog.

Know more than a name – view rich professional profiles from fellow Civil Engineering Central Group members.

Read interesting articles written by your peers by signing up for the monthly e-newsletter.

Unlike most other group discussion boards which contain mainly recruiters advertising open positions, we do not allow for it. Our discussion board is used to discuss the relevant issues effecting your career, your work environment, technology, and any other civil engineering related issues that our members have a passion for.

Link To Join Our Linkedin Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=52214

We would like to invite all members who are actively involved in the civil engineering community to join the newly created FAN PAGE for CivilEngineeringCentral.com on Facebook:

Link to join our Facebook fan page: http://tinyurl.com/CECFanPage

Our fan page feeds in our weekly blog and civil engineering job updates as new positions are posted on our site. Learn about, share and join the Civil Engineering Central group on Linkedin. And each month we will publish our e-newsletter article which is written by a member of the civil engineering community.

Do you tweet? Well, we now do and we would like to invite you to follow us – updates not only as to activity on our site, but civil engineering news updates as well:

Link to follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/civilengineers

CivilEngineeringCentral.com the web’s premier niche job board and resume database catering exclusively to the civil engineering industry. CivilEngineeringCentral.com also hosts a weekly blog, publishes a monthly e-newsletters written by industry experts and provides an avenue for civil engineering professionals to pursue continuing education and professional development hours through their partnership with McKissock.


CivilEngineeringCentral 2.0

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The Bridge Collapse…Two Years Later. What Do We Know?

On August 2, 2007, the entire span of I-35W (officially known as Bridge 9340) in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River. Vehicles, concrete and metal crashed into the water below. Lives were lost and many more were changed that fateful day.

Immediately following the collapse, federal officials ordered an inspection of all steel deck truss bridges like the I-35W bridge. Investigative reporter, Bill Dedman reported the following:
“At first, officials thought there were 756 steel deck truss bridges like the one that fell. That’s how many they found in the official federal database of bridges, the National Bridge Inventory, which gets its records from the states. Then state engineers found 32 more to add to the list. But when states started the inspections, they found that 280 of the bridges weren’t steel deck trusses at all — including 13 bridges made of wood timbers. Another 16 no longer existed; a bridge in Pennsylvania had been closed in 1982. Another 11 were private bridges, not subject to federal inspection. One in New Mexico was a pedestrian bridge. And a bridge in Pennsylvania had been double counted; federal officials had placed an identical ghost bridge in Maryland. By the time the survey was finished, the count of bridges of the same type as the Minneapolis span was down to 479, or 277 fewer than initially reported, according to internal e-mails from the Federal Highway Administration received Thursday by msnbc.com under the Freedom of Information Act.”

The Federal Highway Administration recommended framework for a bridge inspection QA/QC program is comprehensive. In 2008, they cite six (6) state DOTs that have “existing QC/QA procedures that address specific aspects of the “Recommended Framework” in a manner the FHWA considers commendable.” Six? Out of all of the DOTs in the US? I do realize that all states must have existing QC/QA procedures. But only six are “commendable?” What is the status of the remaining state inspection programs? Adequate? Average? Acceptable?

We know that bridge construction has changed over the years. Improvements in technology for use in bridge design, materials and construction have allowed engineers to project increased longevity of bridges. Structural engineers now describe bridge lifespan in terms of 100 years, instead of 20-50 years. Building new “improved” bridges, are we going to have 50 DOTs with commendable QA/QC inspection programs?

With the ability to build with an eye to sustainability, how do we fix what we have? Where does this leave us with our decaying bridges? Many of those bridges now require billions of dollars for rehabilitation or replacement. How can we financially repair them if we don’t even have an accurate count of where they are and what type of bridge they are? What do you think?

By Carol Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com


The Bridge Collapse... Two Years Later. What Do We Know?

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