Last week I had the pleasure of attending the International Bridge Conference in Washington DC and help the ACMA in their booth in the exposition. John Busel of the ACMA has used a great visual in their booth for the past couple of years. You can learn more at this link !
Just happened to come across a presentation hosted by ACI University of a presentation our engineer Ryan Koch PE made at an ACI special session in Washington DC October 2014. Ryan's presentation gives a detailed technical overview of the design and economics of the construction of the I-635 bridge over State Ave in Kansas City KS.
What makes this case study interesting is that there are two nearly identical parallel bridge spans offering the opportunity to compare the design and implementation of GFRP bar directly with epoxy coated steel reinforcing. Ryan goes through details of the design implementation with Jon Karst of George Butler Associates the engineer of record for the project built for Kansas Dept of Transportation.
Spent a few minutes over the holidays watching the Q&A of Dr. Antonio Nanni sharing his thoughts and observations on the state of the FRP bar industry during a panel discussion that took place in Dubai World Trade Center in the UAE. I believe Dr. Nanni's observations are spot on and an accurate representation of our nascent industry as we head into 2017. As an industry in 2016 we made some good strides in standardization that will help designers implement GFRP bars and it will be exciting to hopefully see the manifestation of those efforts bear fruit in the new year.