Bridge Rehabilitation

Instructor

Jim J. Zhao, P.E.
Mr. Zhao is a chief bridge engineer with Nolan Associates, Inc., a structural and civil engineering firm in Ellicott City, Maryland. He is in charge of bridge design and overall project management for the firm.
He received his master’s degree from University of Ottawa, and his undergraduate degree from Tongji University.

Mr. Zhao has eighteen years of experience in design, teaching, and research in structural engineering. He has authored several articles on this subject. He is licensed in Maryland, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Texas, Maine, and Canada. He serves on ASCE-ACI joint committees on “Concrete Bridge Design” and on “Pre-stressed Concrete Design.”

His recent publications include:

• Timber Bridge Design, published by RedVector, 2002
• Project Risk Management, published by RedVector, 2002
• Bridge Design Basic (AASHTO LRFD), published by RedVector, 2001.

Besides these, he coauthored:

• State-of-the-art Report on Partially Pre-stressed Concrete, ACI 423.5R-99, 1999
• Recommendations for Concrete Members Pre-stressed with Unbounded Tendons, ACI 423.3R-96, 1996
• Analysis and Design of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Structures, ACI 343R-95, 1995

Course Description

With rapid aging of the national highway infrastructure, states and local governments are spending more and more money on bridge rehabilitation. Currently, most states spend more money on bridge replacement and rehabilitation than building new bridges. This trend will certainly continue.

Bridge rehabilitation design differs from new bridge design in many ways. It requires a very high degree of knowledge and skill in structure condition evaluation, structural analysis, application of new materials, maintenance of traffic (staged construction), construction methods, and project life cycle cost analysis. All of these are project specific, and require sound judgment to develop the best design alternative. Because of the complexity, most universities do not offer undergraduate or graduate courses on this subject.

This two-day seminar covers subjects such as:

• Structure condition evaluation
• Bridge load rating and rehabilitation analysis
• State-of-the-art rehabilitation techniques
• Alternative analysis models
• New material applications
• Construction methods and constructability analysis
• Project life cycle cost analysis

Seminar Benefits

• Gain an understanding of overall bridge rehabilitation procedures
• Learn existing bridge condition evaluation
• Learning decision-making models
• Learn state-of-the-art bridge rehabilitation techniques

Who Should Attend

Structural engineers and bridge designers, project managers, bridge owners, transportation policy or decision makers, and other bridge engineering professionals.