Page 14 - Bridge and Highway Structure Rehabilitation and Repair

Preface

INTRODUCTION
During the author’s career as a consulting engineer and teacher of structural engineering
subjects, it was observed that few textbooks are available on bridge design or inspection and
rating. Bridge engineering background information needs to be presented beyond AASHTO
LRFD specifi cations and the manual for condition evaluation and LRFR for highway bridges.
What is especially needed is coverage of recent state-of-the-art developments.
A bridge engineer has to face many aspects—structural and otherwise. This book is about
problem solving and providing an insight into important issues. As a bridge engineer and teacher

of modern bridge engineering, I find that there is a need for a book to address new technology
on planning, detailed design, and rehabilitation aspects. Topics such as seismic retrofi ts and

scour countermeasures need to be summed up in the form of a book for the benefits of students
and practicing engineers.
Although AASHTO LRFD and state codes have also been updated to include some of the
changes, they take time to catch up with innovations and incorporate new procedures. They serve
as guidelines and do not aim at educating the reader with fundamentals. Some state codes are
more enterprising in developing the technology compared to federal codes. The subject mat-
ter covered by these voluminous specifications is extensive, diverse, in-depth, mathematical,

and at times not so easy to understand by bridge engineers. This book will serve basically as a

companion reference manual to the codes and specifications, with emphasis on new topics, and
it will focus on both traditional and nontraditional design problems.
Practicing engineers continuously find the need for a book which can simplify the presenta-

tion and make it more palatable for office use. A book should address the state of art of bridge
engineering, highlight major issues, offer necessary explanations, provide sample solved examples
for the day-to-day design issues, and use case studies of practical problems.
If the developments in the subject are reported by this book and understood by teachers
and students at the university level, future practicing engineers will have a jump-start and the
purpose of the book will be well served.

OBJECTIVES
The issues are basically presenting an overall perspective of the multi-billion dollar transporta-
tion industry, the resulting advantages of which to the society appear to surpass those offered by
other disciplines, except perhaps the medical profession. Indeed, transportation is a complement
even to the medical profession, by facilitating an ambulance’s trip to the hospital in the shortest

time, without being stuck in a traffic jam or delayed by a roadway closed for repairs.
The book’s theme and scope are about engineering the rehabilitation and repairs of existing
highways bridges in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Its special features are about facing

“ground realities” or “river realities” when “fixing the bridge.” No more mathematics should
be required than is actually needed, since mathematical technique is a means to an end and is
not an end in itself.
Innovative ideas for structural planning and precast connection details developed by design
and sometimes construction teams over the years will be presented, making this book unique.

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