Events in July 2024
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Bridge Slide over Gila River on SR 79 in Arizona – 1,416’ Span Bridge Slide over Gila River on SR 79 in Arizona – 1,416’ Span
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July 18, 2024Robert Ringwald, P.E., S.E., Senior Project Manager, Associate Vice President, AECOM
Christopher A. Labye, P.E., Senior Bridge Engineer, Technical Quality Auditor, AECOMPresentation starts at: 8:45
Q&A starts at: 47:29Webinar Document:
Intro and News Slides: Intro & News Slides July 2024
Presentation Slides: SR 79 Gila River AECOM ABC Presentation SlidesDescription:
This 1,416'-10" span bridge replacement project was completed in 2023. The 14 spans bridge was replaced as a series of 4 x 3-span units and 1 x 2-span unit, on each side. Each half of the bridge was slid over the course of two separate weekends. The project is over the Gila River on State Route 79 located immediately north of Florence, Arizona. The “shortest” detour was over 100 miles in length, therefore, full closure of the bridge for reconstruction was not practical. A phased bridge slide method was implemented to utilize portions of the new bridge to phase removal and reconstruction activities such that traffic could be maintained during construction.Presenters:
Robert Ringwald, P.E., S.E.
Senior Project Engineer, Associated Vice President
AECOMRob has 33 years of experience in engineering and another 5 years in construction. He is an Associate Vice President at AECOM. He has served as a project manager on numerous major freeway and rural projects utilizing various delivery methods including design-bid-build, design-build and construction-manager-at-risk. His recent experience includes two accelerated bridge construction (ABC) bridge slide projects. Rob graduated from Arizona State University with a BSE in Civil Engineering and a MSE in Structural Engineering.
Christopher A. Labye, P.E.
Senior Bridge Engineer, Technical Quality Auditor
AECOMChris as a senior bridge engineer and technical quality auditor for AECOM and also serves as lead quality manager for the Phoenix and Tucson offices in Arizona. Chris has 27 years of experience in bridge design, and approximately 4 years of geotechnical engineering in transportation. He has served as the lead bridge designer for over 50 miles of preliminary design concept reports and bridge selection reports for the Phoenix Metropolitan Freeway System. Chris graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a BSE in Civil Engineering.
Presentation Photos/Graphics:
1) Superstructure construction adjacent to existing bridge
2) Demolition of existing bridge
3) Night bridge slide in progress
4) Day image of bridge slide in progress
5) Completed Bridge
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A Comprehensive Decision Support Tool for Accelerated Bridge Construction A Comprehensive Decision Support Tool for Accelerated Bridge Construction
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July 26, 2024In this quarterly IBT/ABC-UTC Research Seminar, Ali Ebrahimian, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator; and Nasim Mohamadiazar, M. Sc., Ph.D. candidate, present work related to an ABC Decision Support Tool.
Presentation starts at: 0:46
Q&A starts at: 55:54Documents:
Intro and News Slides: July Seminar Intro Slides
Presentation Slides: July26, 2024 Presentation Slides - ABC Decision Tool
Questions and Answers: Questions and AnswersDescription: The suitability of using accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques involves various interdependencies with social and environmental factors that impact the surrounding communities, in addition to economic, safety, and technical considerations related to bridge design and construction. State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) utilize different decision-making approaches, ranging from complex to simpler processes, for determining the suitability of ABC methods in bridge projects. Connecticut DOT (CTDOT) uses a middle ground approach through a spreadsheet tool that evaluates the impacts of ABC on road users and the environment, accounting for total project costs and potential cost savings from ABC. The objective of this project is to improve the comprehensiveness, flexibility, and widespread use of the CTDOT ABC tool by considering the impacts and contributions of ABC on roadway safety and environmental justice, and offering a systematic method for the determination of relative importance (weights) of decision criteria. Two case studies will be presented to showcase the practical applicability of the improved tool. The FIU-ABC tool is comprehensive and flexible, yet simple (spreadsheet format), and relies on nationally available data, making it suitable for adoption by all state DOTs nationwide.
Presenters:
Ali Ebrahimian, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Florida International University
Email: alebrahi@fiu.eduDr. Ali Ebrahimian is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University. His interdisciplinary research areas are focused on urban hydrology, green stormwater infrastructure, flood control, and multi-criteria risk/decision analysis in complex urban infrastructure systems. Since 1998, he has served in various disciplinary and interdisciplinary projects as a researcher, consulting engineer, modeler, designer, systems analyst, and project manager in industry and academia, and developed multiple decision support tools for improving sustainability and resilience of various urban infrastructure systems.
Nasim Mohamadiazar, M. Sc.
Ph.D. candidate
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Florida International University
Email: nmoha031@fiu.eduNasim Mohamadiazar is a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering at Florida International University. Her research focuses on multi-criteria decision-making, socio-technical, and flood risk assessment, with an emphasis on environmental justice. She has worked also as a research assistant on several projects for the IBT/ABC-UTC at FIU, including the Integrated Flood and Socio-Environmental Risk Analysis for Prioritizing ABC Activities. Nasim actively engages in projects and activities aimed at revitalizing underserved communities, believing that every community should have a voice in decision-making.
Presentation Graphics:
Figure 1: AI Generated Image
Figure 2. Process of calculating Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) in FIU-ABC decision support tool.
Figure 3. A snapshot of the FIU-ABC decision support tool for calculating Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) snapshot by integrating crash data and cost information.
Figure 4. Step-by-step guide to accessing NOAA weather data for bridge locations. The steps include: 1) Searching for the bridge location using an interactive map, 2) Identifying the nearest weather station, and 3) Selecting the desired data type and parameters from the NOWData - NOAA online weather data portal.
Figure 5. Snapshots of the process for accessing state traffic safety information via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website. Users are instructed to follow three main steps. First, click on the desired state on the provided map to select the project location. Next, enter the specific project location details on the map interface. Finally, choose the type of fatality data and the years for which the information is needed from the menu.
