CIVIL
THE UNITED STATES has nearly 600,000 bridges, and more than 25 percent of them require major overhauls. Indeed, nearly 14 percent are structurally deficient. Most of the suspect structures are in the Northeast. case in point: In 2005, New York's Dunn Memorial Bridge, which spans the Hudson River, nearly collapsed after a support pier tilted and cracked. That's when Glenn Washer got involved. The University of Missouri-Columbia civil and environmental engineer won a $109,500 National Academy of Sciences grant to develop a high-tech sensor system that will alert officials when a bridge is in danger of tumbling down. The system will consist of about 20 sensors connected to a computer processor and attached to the bridges' support piers. Washer fears that the actual number of high-risk bridges may exceed 14 percent because inspections only occur every few years, and problems can crop up in the interim periods. "This device will be there every day" providing continuous data, Washer says. It should detect any cracks and tilts that could jeopardize a bridge's stability, helping to make catastrophic failures a thing of the past. -TG
[Sidebar]
New York's Dunn Memorial Bridege nearly collapsed in 2005.
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