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UA engineers tackle infrastructure woes
They ease Twin Cities traffic problems and develop ways to retrofit bridges
One of the most rewarding aspects of an engineering career is the opportunity it affords us to make significant contributions to society. Nowhere is that more evident than in the contributions engineers make in the aftermath of tragic events.
Last July, 11 people died when an interstate highway bridge collapsed between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. Thousands of other Minnesotans were significantly inconvenienced by the loss of this IH-35W bridge, a major arterial that carries 140,000 vehicles daily.
This tragedy highlights the huge infrastructure problems facing the United States and the challenges and opportunities we face as engineers.
This country experienced incredible growth and expansion in its highway and bridge infrastructure in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Today, those structures are deteriorating, and many need repair and or replacement.
These highways are the lifelines of our country and we don’t have the luxury of making repairs and replacements in the absence of significant traffic demands.
Engineering Faculty Help Out
Three members of our Civil Engineering faculty recognized these infrastructure problems early on, conducted research over several years, and are now in a position to make significant contributions to solving these problems and others.
Professor Yi Chiang Chiu designs and builds sophisticated computer simulations that predict traffic patterns under the influence of complicated urban scenarios, including accidents, loss of arterials, and natural disasters. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has asked Chiu to model traffic flow and to devise efficient strategies for rerouting traffic while the IH-35W bridge is being replaced.
While Chiu’s work will help MDOT mitigate some of the immediate traffic woes, two other UA Civil Engineering faculty members have developed technologies that could benefit transportation departments across the nation as they grapple with upgrading aging structures.
The Minnesota tragedy has taken the discussion of infrastructure maintenance and repair out of the academic journals and traffic engineering publications and placed it squarely on the evening news.
The general public now recognizes the need for maintenance, repair and replacement of bridges and that hundreds of billions of dollars in potential expenses and liabilities are involved.
Retrofitting Solutions
Reliable methods to retrofit existing bridges, particularly methods that can return the bridges to structurally “as new” condition, offer tremendous advantages.
Professors Hamid Saadatmanesh and Mo Ehsani have developed relatively inexpensive ways to do this using composite materials to strengthen existing bridges quickly and without major traffic disruption.
It is particularly gratifying for me, as dean of the college, to see the significant ways in which these members of our faculty and many others are contributing to society. Solving societal problems is what we do in engineering, and it’s great to be part of such a rewarding profession.
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While we’re talking about contributing to society, I want to express my particular pride in Jay Alexander, one of our undergraduate students in Materials Science and Engineering.
He donated a large part of his time this past summer to raise money for Habitat For Humanity.
Jay and 28 of his soon-to-be-closest-friends participated in the Habitat Bicycle Challenge. On June 1, the group left New Haven Conn. and peddled for eight weeks and three days to Seattle, Wash.
The ride left Jay in the best shape of his life and with an experience that most of us only dream of. And his ride contributed to providing housing for people who otherwise could not afford it. This put Jay’s effort squarely in the best traditions of engineers, whose job it is to make life better for us all.
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