It's been a busy media week following the Minnesota bridge collapse. Here are a few clips for you to enjoy:

• Kansas and Missouri bridge infrastructure/Future of bridge building technology


• Bridge inspections under scrutiny after collapse


• Monitoring Missouri's bridges


• Cracks in the system?


• Rigid review of our bridges


• Chances of collapse small

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UMR is one of four universities slated to receive $3 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for new research, the DoT announced late last week. The allocation is part of an $18.5 million in transportation research funding for 13 U.S. universities through DoT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

Speaking of UMR transportation research, be sure to tune in the PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on Monday night to catch some of UMR's transportation researchers discuss their work and the state of the nation's infrastructure.

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I spent today with a crew from the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as they talked with UMR researchers about the future of bridges (about everything from bridge ratings, improved tools for inspectors and how "plastic" can be used to retrofit ailing bridges and in new construction).

We even took a road trip to St. James, Mo., to see a bridge UMR researchers built without using any concrete. Then we took old Route 66 to see Devil's Elbow, built in 1923.

I learned a lot about corrosion, fatigue, the bridge inspection process and "plastic" bridges. You can too, by tuning into your local PBS station Friday night (Aug. 10). And if your air conditioner is working, I'll guarantee it'll be at least a cooler way to learn.

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While on campus, KOLR-10 in Springfield also stopped in to watch DJ Belarbi conduct a few tests on a bridge pier. The tests are part of larger project that have UMR and four other universities studying the complex loading -- twisting, pushing and bending -- that can occur all at the same time and in every direction in bridge structures during earthquakes.

The research team will develop minimum design guidelines that will help future bridge engineers design safer bridges. In addition to UMR and UNR, the team includes the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and Washington University-St. Louis. The five-member team will eventually work directly with Japanese researchers to understand earthquake bridge design at a more international level.

“We are in an earthquake-prone area close to the New Madrid fault line, the most active fault east of the Rockies,” says team member Dr. D.J. Belarbi, Curators’ Teaching Professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at UMR. “One of the nation’s largest devastating earthquakes happened in this area in 1812. We know that the infrastructure in this area is prone to behave very badly if an earthquake hits.”

FYI -- Belarbi and Pedro Silva talked to TechnoFiles back in February about their work. Catch the interview here.

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The 2006 Missouri Concrete Conference continues today at UMR. The conference offers a little something for everyone, from repair to design to quality control. Attendees will learn more about joint sealing, low volume bridge options and the do's and don'ts of using blended concrete.

On a side note: Later this month, UMR students will take their concrete canoe up to the University of Missouri-Columbia and, assuming the vessel passes the “swamp test," navigate the canoe across several staged race events. This regional event is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Watch the team's program via their web cam here.

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Mobile Radio Technology talks this month with UMR's own Kelvin Erickson about his efforts to use the nation's gas pipelines to build wireless networks.

“A big part of dealing with pipelines is the aspect of inspection," said Richard Baker, project manager with the Gas Technology Management Division of DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory. “The methodology that they used in this project was a novel approach to communicating to connection devices inside the lines because it actually was looking at using the pipeline as a wave guide for a communications signal."

Read more here.

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A reader asked for more information about the technology behind the UMR-Greene County bridge project that is up for a national award. The UMR University Transportation Center, from which this research originates, has all kinds of information about this research on its website. A good place to start would be with the UTC's selection of journal articles (links are PDF).

In addition, Fabio Matta, a researcher with the UMR Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies, suggests these online documents about the use of fiber-reinforced polymer materials for infrastructure applications:

• Paper presented at the 2005 Federal Highway Administration conference in December 2005 (PDF). The paper discusses how glass fiber-reinforced polymer rebar may be used in bridge construction, and details its use in the Greene County, Mo., bridge.

• A slideshow presentation (PDF) of the research, from the same conference.

• The research group's most recent publication: Development of a Cost-Effective Structural FRP Stay-In-Place Formwork System for Accelerated and Durable Bridge Deck Construction (PDF).

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