February 17, 2022 1:00 pm

Tucker Murphy, Ph.D., President, Friends of Bermuda Railway Trail; and Daniel E. Winey, P.E., Chief Structural Engineer, E.T. Techtonics Product Line, Creative Pultrusions, Inc.

Webinar Documents:
World’s Longest Pultruded Pedestrian Bridge: Bermuda’s Flatts Inlet FRP Bridge - pdf of presentation
Q&A Session - pdf
News - February 17, 2022 - pdf of presentation

Description: The island of Bermuda is just 21 miles long and 1.75 miles wide, yet its iconic pink sand beaches and other tourist attractions draw 650,000 visitors a year. In 2012, Dr. Tucker Murphy and his father, Mike, formed a local charity called Friends of Bermuda Railway Trail. Their goal was to reconnect the old Bermuda Railway [which ran from 1931 to 1948] route into a single, continuous trail for pedestrians and cyclists. Flatts Inlet was one of six major trail breaks that required a bridge to extend visitor access to the island. Challenges of hurricane-force winds and salt water required a corrosion-resistant material that could meet local safety and performance codes. Funded locally by private companies and individuals and completed in 2021, the fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) pedestrian bridge is a 152-ft long and 8-ft wide single span. Prior to this project, E.T. Techtonics’ longest span was 120 ft. This presentation describes design and construction details and lessons learned.

Presenters:

Tucker Murphy, Ph.D.
President
Friends of Bermuda Railway Trail
Email: tucker.murphy@gmail.com

Tucker majored in Biology modified with Anthropology at Dartmouth College and received citations for distinguished work in Spanish literature, architecture, biology and anthropology. For his master’s in zoology at Oxford University, Tucker studied animal architecture, including the extraordinary physical properties of spider silk and the living bridges built by army ants on their raiding trails. He also holds a doctorate in zoology from Oxford. As President of the Friends of Bermuda Railway Trail, Tucker has worked alongside Dan Winey and many others to shape and reconnect the natural landscapes of his island home, Bermuda, by building bridges on the old railway trail.

Daniel E. Winey, P.E.
Chief Structural Engineer
E.T. Techtonics Product Line
Creative Pultrusions, Inc.
Alum Bank, Pennsylvania
Email: dwiney@pultrude.com

Dan has served in his current position since 2019. He has 21 years of structural engineering experience with design, permitting, and plan preparation of bridge and building projects. His experience with AASHTO bridge specifications and the International Building Code is essential to the design and permitting of the E.T. Techtonics bridge product line, which supplies fiberglass pedestrian bridges to national, state, and local trail and park systems nationwide as well as to commercial and private clients. Dan has extensive experience with projects related to truck live loading. He overseas design/fabrication plans and specifications for bridges and boardwalks. Dan received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University at University Park in 1992 and is licensed as a Professional Engineer in the states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.