Bridge Symposium
The Structural Engineers Association of Illinois is pleased to announce the 16th Annual Bridge Symposium, which provides a forum for engineers to share analysis, design, and construction information from recent projects with unique and/or distinguishing characteristics. Attendance typically represents a diverse cross-section of all aspects of the profession, including: design, construction management, material suppliers, academia, general contracting, and owners’ representatives.
PROGRAM INFORMATION
7:30 am - 8:00 am |
Registration/ Breakfast |
8:00 am - 8:10 am |
Welcome and Introduction to the Symposium |
8:10 am - 8:40 am |
Restoration of the Historic Franklin Avenue Bridge |
8:40 am - 9:10 am |
De-Mystifying Seismic Multi-Modal Analyses |
9:10 am - 9:20 am |
Break - Visit Exhibitors |
9:20 am - 9:50 am |
Two Become One: Adjacent Precast Tub Girder Design for High Speed Rail |
9:50 am - 10:20 am |
Fluid Dynamic Analysis using Pseudo-Static Loading Sequence Analysis |
10:20 am - 10:30 am |
Break - Visit Exhibitors |
10:30 am - 11:00 am |
Pedestrian Bridges and Walkways – Controlling Vibration Through Tuned Mass Damper Design |
11:00 am - 11:30 am |
Pearl Session # 1 (short presentations):
|
11:30 am - 11:40 am |
Break - Visit Exhibitors |
11:40 am - 12:10 pm |
Structure Mounted Noise Abatement Wall, Test Level 5 (TL-5) |
12:10 pm - 12:50 pm |
Lunch |
12:50 pm - 1:30 pm |
Keynote Presentation |
1:30 pm - 1:40 pm |
Break - Visit Exhibitors |
1:40 pm - 2:10 pm |
Importance of Fatigue in the Condition Evaluation of the I-74 Bridge over CN Railroad |
2:10 pm - 2:40 pm |
Extending the Service Life of 110 Year Old Railroad Bridges |
2:40 pm - 2:50 pm |
Break - Visit Exhibitors |
2:50 pm - 3:20 pm |
How to Skip a Stone Across a Busy Intersection |
3:20 pm - 3:50 pm |
Structural Health Monitoring System For The Governor Mario M. Cuomo (New Tappan Zee) Bridge |
3:50 pm - 4:00 pm |
Break - Visit Exhibitors |
4:00 pm - 4:30 pm |
41st Street Pedestrian Bridge, Chicago, IL |
4:30 pm - 4:55 pm
|
Pearl Session # 2 (short presentations):
|
4:55 pm - 5:00 pm |
Raffle and Adjourn |
Attendees receive 7 PDHs/CEs hours of continuing education credit for the Symposium.
Location
Maggiano's Little Italy
111 W. Grand Avenue
Chicago, IL
Valet parking is available at Maggiano’s for $16/day. Other street parking is extremely limited.
Registration
Registration and a continental breakfast will be available at 7:30 am; the program begins at 8. Lunch will be provided. The program concludes at 5 pm.
The registration fee is $380 for members and $430 for non-members.
Students: $100
The Symposium registration fee will be waived for presenting authors of a full presentation (not the Pearl session)
Exhibitor Opportunities SOLD OUT!
Limited Exhibitor Opportunities are available. The exhibit fee is $825 and includes recognition the program, mention from the podium, one admission to the Bridge Symposium, and access to participants during breakfast, lunch and breaks during the day. For more information or to reserve your space online, please visit this page.
Sponsorship Opportunities
There are four different levels of corporate sponsorship:
- Platinum: $1,000 – Recognition in program, display of a poster at event, and recognition for sponsoring lunch.
- Gold: $850 – Recognition in the program, display of a poster at event, and recognition during the technical session for sponsoring one of the following: Continental Breakfast, Morning Break or Afternoon Break
- Silver: $600 – Recognition in the program and display of a poster at event
- Bronze: $350 – Recognition in the program
Companies interested in sponsoring this event are invited to register here.
About the Speakers
Keynote
Rod Beadle - Executive Director of Engineers in Action
Rod Beadle is the Executive Director of Engineers in Action, an international nonprofit organization that partners with communities in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Eswatini and student and professional volunteers to design and construct footbridges, water systems, and other critical infrastructure. He is a civil engineer with over 35 years of experience in the design and construction of transportation and infrastructure facilities. Rod has also served extensively as an engineer on international development and disaster response operations throughout the developing world.
EIA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that partners with communities and volunteer groups to develop clean water and infrastructure solutions to impoverished, rural areas in Latin America and Africa. In 2018, EIA took over the University Bridge Program from another nonprofit organization, Bridges to Prosperity. EIA’s Bridge Program includes active chapters from 17 universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In 2019, our chapters are planning to construct six suspended pedestrian bridges in Boliva and two in eSwatini (formerly Swaziland).
Rod will talk about how EIA’s Bridge Program has been designed and implemented to ensure that most projects are designed and constructed within a year and how community participation in paying for materials and providing construction labor has led to a greater sense of ownership and participation. He will also describe technical details of how the bridges are designed and built in remote, isolated conditions and describe how pedestrian bridges can dramatically improve the health and economic wellbeing of the communities where we serve. Visit our Bridge Program for more information.
Engineers in Action – Bridges in Action
Rod will talk about how EIA’s Bridge Program has been designed and implemented to ensure that most projects are designed and constructed within a year and how community participation in paying for materials and providing construction labor has led to a greater sense of ownership and participation. He will also describe technical details of how the bridges are designed and built in remote, isolated conditions and describe how pedestrian bridges can dramatically improve the health and economic wellbeing of the communities where we serve.
Angela Kingsley, PE, Project Manager - HNTB Corporation
Angela is a bridge designer and project manager at HNTB in Minneapolis, MN. She has over 10 years of experience in structural testing, analysis, and design of transportation structures. She has performed evaluation, load rating and rehabilitation of complex and historic bridges. Angela holds a BCE from the University of Minnesota and an MS in structural engineering from the University of Washington.
Restoration of the Historic Franklin Avenue Bridge
The historic Franklin Avenue Bridge, built in 1923, is a 1050-foot-long, five-span, open-spandrel, concrete deck arch crossing the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When advanced degradation made rehabilitation necessary, Hennepin County and HNTB considered users’ needs and the structure’s historic nature to develop a design that limited disruption and restored the bridge’s grandeur, while extending the long-term service life. The design incorporated elements from the original architectural design. Applying modern construction methods and innovative materials, the 93-year-old bridge was closed on May 8, 2016 and re-opened for service on September 1, 2016, 116 days later to the approval of the local community.
Dipal Vimawala, SE, PE, - Vice President and Bridge Practice Leader for the Central region of AECOM
He received his Master’s Degree in Structural engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1993. Dipal is with AECOM for past 26 years, is licensed Professional and Structural Engineer and, has experience working on variety of traditional as well as design-build projects within the US and Canada. Dipal was the Principal-in-charge for the 41st street bridge project involved from inception and planning phase to providing support through the final design.
Jixing He, Senior Bridge Engineer and Associate Vice President with AECOM
He received his PhD in Structural Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1990. He is specialized in highway steel & concrete structures and has designed several large, complicated, innovative and award winning highway bridges. Jixing was the Engineer of the Record and responsible for the structural design of the two main arch spans for this project. Currently he is working on the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, a long span steel arch bridge in Washington, D.C.
41st Street Pedestrian Bridge, Chicago, IL
The pedestrian bridge spanning over Lake Shore Drive & several Railroads, is comprised of 240’ long twin inclined arch spans supporting a 20’ wide curved concrete deck. Both arches are inclined in opposite directions to create an elegant “S” curve. The Project possesses many challenges such as, shipping and erection over extremely active RR tracks (263 daily trains), a major highway and need for a temporary bridge to allow erection of main spans.
Matthew D. Baughman P.Eng, PE, SE - Senior Bridge Engineer, COWI
Matt Baughman is a senior bridge engineer in the Seattle office of COWI. Matt has thirteen years of experience in bridge projects, including signature pedestrian bridges and major cable-stayed bridges. He most recently served as the design manager for COWI’s twelve bridges on the SouthWest Calgary Ring Road project, and engineer of record for the Totem Lake Connector bridge.
How to Skip a Stone Across a Busy Intersection
The Totem Lake Connector is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge that will connect the two ends of the 5.75-mile long Cross Kirkland Corridor Trail, which is currently severed by one of Kirkland’s most complicated and busy intersections: Totem Lake Boulevard and NorthEast 124th Street. The new bridge will serve as a regional landmark and a gateway to the rapidly developing Totem Lake area. The Skipping Stone design is comprised of several undulating arches that span below and above the deck as the bridge crosses the roadways, and a loop ramp over the wetlands.
Chris Knipp, P.E. - Engineer - Structures, Jacobs
Chris is a member of the structural team at Jacobs in Chicago. He has five years of experience in structural bridge analysis, design, detailing, complex load rating, and inspection. He received his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Iowa, and a master's degree in Structural Engineering from Penn State University.
Two Become One: Adjacent Precast Tub Girder Design for High Speed Rail
The ballasted bridge at Kings River is composed of 2-two span units with a max span length of 112’ and a total length of 445’, and is to carry two lines of high speed rail. The design of the superstructure incorporated a unique concept of erecting two precast prestressed concrete tub girders, placed together and connected through their individual interior webs, to form a single span two-cell box girder segment. The presentation will focus on the challenges faced and the complex design requirements for this high speed rail bridge
Judie Refvik, PE - Senior Rail Bridge Engineer, HDR
Judie has been working in the field of railroad bridge engineering since beginning her career in 1997, first at BNSF in Kansas City, Kansas, and later with several consulting firms in the Chicago area. Since 2015, Judie has been managing bridge and retaining wall projects and leading design teams in HDR’s Chicago office. Her work includes new and rehabilitated steel and concrete railroad bridges and miles of various types of retaining walls.
Extending the Service Life of 110 Year Old Railroad Bridges
The presentation will discuss a maintenance program performed by HDR to inspect, rate, and repair or replace 5 bridges on the Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line. Topics to be covered will include the inspection and rating process, replacement of two structures, major repair of three structures, and lessons learned during construction of the major repairs.
Kamlesh Kumar, PE, SE - Senior Structural Engineer, EXP US Services
Kamlesh Kumar is a Senior Structural Engineer at EXP US Services with 14 years of experience in bridge engineering including movable bridges, curved and skewed, steel & prestressed concrete girder bridges. He has led several projects involving inspection, load rating and rehabilitation of complex bridges in and around Illinois. Mr. Kumar is a licensed SE in Illinois and PE in several states. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Importance of Fatigue in the Condition Evaluation of the I-74 Bridge over CN Railroad
The existing I-74 bridge over CN railroad, originally constructed in 1956, is a 720' continuous bridge with built-up steel girders reinforced with welded cover plates. As the bridge nears the end of its service life, EXP evaluated options for its rehabilitation or replacement. The welded cover plates, along with other fatigue-prone details on the existing bridge, played a large role in determining the preferred alternative. This presentation highlights the various rehabilitation and replacement options evaluated, as well the fatigue analysis methodology used to determine the remaining service life of the cover plates.
Shayne Love, Project Engineer - Vibration and Damping | Associate, RWDI
Shayne brings his deep expertise in structural dynamics to both our damping-systems team and our acoustics, noise and vibration group. Our clients benefit in particular from Shayne’s ability to maximize the efficiency of supplementary damping systems by applying his nuanced understanding of sloshing dynamics and nonlinear dynamic systems. Whether he is devising structural mitigation strategies to limit footfall vibrations in a busy hospital or solving structural control challenges in an ambitious skyscraper, Shayne’s research background and international project experience combine to deliver successful outcomes for building projects.
Pedestrian Bridges and Walkways – Controlling Vibration Through Tuned Mass Damper Design
This presentation focuses on the pedestrian-induced vibrations which result from pedestrians walking across a bridge. RWDI studies performed on many pedestrian bridges include prediction of the force, simulation of the bridge response and the design and installation of tuned mass dampers (TMDs) to mitigate vibrations.
James Fuller, PE - Structural Engineer, Stantec Consulting Services, Inc.
James is a structural engineer who provides design and detailing for highway, pedestrian, light rail, and other transportation structures. His expertise ranges from initial structure type selection through final design and construction support. James' experience encompasses both small-scale projects, such as retaining wall design, and large design-build projects, such as the 18.5-mile North Metro rail line in Denver where he was involved in the design of the longest bridge in Colorado history, totaling over 9,500 feet.
Fluid Dynamic Analysis using Pseudo-Static Loading Sequence Analysis
The Line 6A Arches consists of two self-supporting 34” steel pipes used to transport crude oil across a 300’ shipping canal. Large dynamic responses have been observed during the beginning and end of oil deliveries. A pseudo-static non-linear staged construction analysis was performed to evaluate its capacity to resist operating stresses resulting from the dynamic responses.
Ozan Celik, Ph.D. Project Engineer, Geocomp
Mr. Celik has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from University of Central Florida and a Masters in Structural Engineering from Istanbul Technical University. As a Project Engineer in the Chicago office, his focus of interests are monitoring and performance assessment of civil engineering structures utilizing structural health monitoring (SHM) practices such as structural identification, experimental and operational modal analysis; analytical simulation and various non-destructive evaluation technologies. He has been involved in international and interdisciplinary projects where he developed frameworks to combine conventional monitoring practices with computer vision and artificial intelligence for condition assessment of civil infrastructure systems such as highway bridges, pedestrian bridges, stadiums and pavements. He currently Manages the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge SHM program for Geocomp.
Structural Health Monitoring System For The Governor Mario M. Cuomo (New Tappan Zee) Bridge
Presentation of the Structural Health Monitoring System for the New Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in NY and how data management provides timely decisions for Asset Management.
Arzhang Zamani, PhD - Project Engineer, EXP US Services
Arzhang Zamani graduated from the University of Tehran with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. He received his PhD. in Structural Engineering from the George Washington University. Arzhang's professional experience includes research related to bridge structures, accelerated bridge construction, nonlinear material modeling, and finite element analysis. He has been with EXP US Services as a project engineer since 2018. He has taught at the George Washington University as an adjunct professor since 2017.
Investigation Of Using 0.7 In. Diameter Strand At 2 In. Spacing For Precast/Prestressed Concrete Members
In recent years, application of the 0.7-in.-diameter strands in prestressed concrete girders for highway bridges have received the attention of many researchers in the United States. Using large size strands has the advantage of producing significantly large amount of pretensioning force with fewer number of strands, which lowers the centroid of the pretensioned strands and enhances the flexural capacity of pretensioned concrete girders.
Eddie He, S.E., Ph.D. - Technical Director, AccelBridge
Eddie has over 25 years of experience in design, analysis, and construction of bridges and buildings. He has been involved in the design and construction of more than 30 complex bridge projects, including post-tensioning concrete, steel box girder, segmental concrete, arch, truss, cable-stayed, suspension bridges, and transit structures. Benefited from his experience as both a contractor and a designer, Eddie demonstrates the unique capacity of developing innovative and practical designs with attentions to constructability. AccelBridge is a full depth precast deck system invented by Eddie.
A Durable and Cost Effective Full-depth Precast Deck System
This presentation will cover the design, detailing, and construction of AccelBridge using completed project examples. AccelBridge is a revolutionary full depth precast deck technology which is more durable, cheaper, faster and simpler to construct than all other precast deck systems.
Hemal Patel, PE, SE - Structural Engineer, EXP US Services
Hemal Patel, P.E., S.E., is a Structural Engineer at EXP US Services with five years of experience in bridge design and analysis. His experience has involved various bridge types carrying pedestrian, vehicular and train traffic. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MS in structural engineering from University of Texas at Austin.
How to Design a Tall Bridge Pier in 5 Minutes
How to Design a Tall Pier in 5 minutes” is an example of using the 5-10 rule – how to design any bridge component in 5 minutes to within 10% accuracy. In this session, the presenter explains that the preliminary design of a tall bridge pier can be completed through three easy steps: calculating the service and strength loads, sizing the pier to limit service deflection and secondary effects, and finally determining the reinforcement ratio for adequate strength. For each step, hand calculation tricks, parametric graphs and rules-of-thumb that help to expedite the preliminary design process will be shared.
Brett Sauter - Structural Group Manager, Ciorba Group
Brett Sauter is the Structural Group Manager at Ciorba Group. He has over 18 years of experience in the study and design of bridge improvement projects of various complexity including prestressed precast concrete and steel bridges on curved alignments, post-tensioned concrete bridges, and steel arch structures. Brett is a licensed Structural Engineer in Illinois and is a licensed Professional Engineer in five states. He received his bachelors from Valparaiso University and his masters from University of Illinois at Chicago.
Design and Construction of a Curved bridge in a Tight Residential Setting
The new Forest Avenue bridge replaced an aging structure in a constrained residential setting. The proposed construction of the bridge had to be kept in mind throughout the design process due to narrow residential streets and a steep ravine under the bridge.
Mark Shaffer, PE, SE, - Bridge Design Policy Engineer, Illinois Department of Transportation
Mark Shaffer is the Bridge Design Policy Engineer for Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). He oversees the incorporation of AASHTO policy into IDOT standards and works with other engineers and researchers to determine innovative and cost-effective solutions to bridge engineering issues. He also works with national institutions such as TRB and NCEES to help maintain the quality and innovation present in the bridge engineering community.
De-Mystifying Seismic Multi-Modal Analyses
Multi-modal seismic analysis of bridges is required by AASHTO for most structures in Seismic Zones 3 and 4, which is present in the Midwest due to the New Madrid fault. This level of analysis often causes much confusion and anxiety in engineers, who may have not performed one and have no visual cue for what the results of their analysis should look like. This presentation gives an overview of what a multi-modal analysis is, when it is required, and, most importantly, a visual rundown of each step in the process.
Zachary Treece, Senior Engineer, Thornton Tomasetti
Zachary (Zach) Treece is a senior engineer at the Chicago office of Thornton Tomasetti. He has spent the majority of his career in the firm’s structural engineering and construction engineering practices, with some time in property loss consulting. Zach has experience in all phases of structural engineering projects, having had the opportunity to be involved in multiple projects from their infancy in schematic design all the way through the end of construction administration.
O’Hare International Airport Concourse L Pedestrian Bridge and Concourse Expansion
An active site and constrained timeline presented unique structural, construction, and erection engineering challenges at one of America's busiest airports. Thornton Tomasetti's integrated suite of services helped lead the design and construction team through these challenges to deliver a successful project.
Ahmad Hammad, PhD, PE, SE, - Senior Engineering Manager, WSP USA, Inc.
Ahmad received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil/Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ahmad has over two decades of experience in the design and rehabilitation of highway and transit structures as well as buildings. In addition, he is a registered structural engineer in the state of Illinois and a registered professional engineer in many states. Ahmad has published several refereed papers. Ahmad currently serves as the Structures Mangers for the Illinois Tollway GEC.
Structure Mounted Noise Abatement Wall, Test Level 5 (TL-5)
Design requirements in accordance with AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) for highway Noise Abatement Walls (NAW) will be presented. Method of attachment of the NAW to crash tested barrier, zone of intrusion, barrier heights, barrier shape (F-shape and constant slope), simulation results, crash testing will also be presented.
Maqbool Mohammed, PE - Principal, Stantec Consulting Services Inc.
With over 15 years of experience, Maqbool has provided bridge inspections and bridge design services for public-sector clients throughout the northeastern US, including NYCDOT, NYSDOT, The Port Authority of NY & NJ and NJDOT. His assertive approach has led to success in asset management where he practices merging transportation infrastructure with information technology to support a sustainable design strategy.
The Correlation Between 2D and 3D Analysis of Integral Abutment Bridges
It presents a comparison between analysis results from Two Dimensional (2D) and Three Dimensional (3D) Finite Element (FE) models for Integral Abutment Bridges (IABs).
Organizing Committee
Soliman Khudeira, PhD, SE, PE (Committee Chair) - Chicago DOT
Maen Farhat, PhD – LOCHNER
Phillip D. Frey, SE, PE - T.Y. Lin International
Moussa A. Issa, PhD, SE, PE - HBM Engineering Group
Lawrence L. Kirchner, SE, PE – TranSystems
Majid Mobasseri, PhD, SE, PE – CBBEL
Olufemi Oladeinde, SE, PE, SDIENGR Corp.
Tony Shkurti, PhD, SE, PE – HNTB Corporation
Chris Stine, SE, PE - AECOM
Brian Umbright, SE, PE – EXP US Services
Stephanie Crain (Executive Director) – SEAOI