FHWA launches new nationwide seismic bridge design training

Public Roads, Autumn, 1996 by James W. Keeley

Copies of the design examples will be sent to participants of the two satellite seminars described as the second training feature.

Second Training Feature

The second feature is instruction in seismic design application, provided through two, one-day, national, satellite seminars broadcast from the University of Maryland. Bob Mast and Dr. Lee Marsh of BERGER/ABAM are the instructors. They participated in authoring the seven design examples, and they developed the seminar materials. The seminars are listed as NHI's Course No. 13063 - "Seismic Bridge Design Applications."

The first seminar was aired on April 25, 1996. It included seven, 50-minute sessions that covered seismic design philosophy, structural dynamics concepts, example analysis and design of a two-span bridge, modeling guidelines, multimode dynamic analysis, and column and pier design. Jim Roberts, California's chief bridge engineer and chairman of AASHTO's T-3 Seismic Technical Committee, made introductory comments supporting the need for national seismic training. Each participant received a course workbook containing copies of the nearly 300 high-quality graphic slides used in the seminar. Nearly a half dozen working models were used by the instructors to illustrate the dynamic response of bridges. Two homework problems were given to the seminar participants to work prior to the second seminar. They are based on the first and second design examples and are intended to help engineers "learn by doing" actual analysis and design variations.

Video tapes of the first satellite seminar are available for loan and copying from NHI. Copies of the course workbook for the first seminar are available from the FHWA Research and Technology (R&T) Report Center, 9701 Philadelphia Court, Unit Q, Lanham, MD 20706. The telephone number for the R&T Report Center is (301) 577-0818.

The second satellite seminar was conducted on July 25.

A satellite seminar is a very efficient and cost-effective way to reach a large audience atone time. For example, the first broadcast reached approximately 600 participants at 20 different sites around the United States, from the East Coast to Alaska, at a fraction of the cost and time required to present the seminar at 20 different locations. However, in satellite seminars, the opportunities for interaction between the participants and the instructors are very limited. Instructor-participant interaction is very important for seismic design training, so FHWA is developing a third feature of this project.

Third Training Feature

OTA, OERD, NHI, and CFLHD are working together to develop this new feature. It involves a "help desk" service that will provide three levels of training assistance. The first level will provide answers to questions about the seismic design examples and the two seminars. The second level will provide seismic technical assistance on actual bridge design projects under development. The third level will provide the production and delivery of interactive training for state bridge engineers at their office to meet their specific seismic training needs.