Professor testifies to Congress
In response to the August bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minn., the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing to examine bridge safety and upkeep.
Kevin Womack, USU civil and environmental engineering professor, testified before Congress in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, offering his suggestions to increase bridge safety.
“More than four billion vehicles cross bridges in the United States every day and, like all man-made structures, bridges deteriorate. Deferred maintenance accelerates deterioration and causes bridges to be more susceptible to failure,” Womack said as part of his testimony. “For the safety and security of our families, we, as a nation, can no longer afford to ignore this growing problem.”
At the hearing, “Bridge Safety: Next Steps to Protect the Nation’s Critical Bridge Infrastructure,” Womack said he pushed for more funding and research regarding the life of bridges.
Womack is the Utah Transportation Center’s director and was chosen to testify as a representative of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
He said he expressed the need for a better-defined inspection process.
Currently, inspection is mostly visual, but Womack said he believes it could be improved with the use of instrumentation. For the condition of the nation’s bridges to improve, he said protocol must be changed.
Licensed professional engineers need to be testing and monitoring bridges, he said. To ensure bridge performance and public safety, technicians cannot simply assess the roadways visually.
Had the bridge in Minneapolis had more vigorous testing, Womack said there might have been some warning.
“Obviously, something could have been done to prevent the collapse. They found a problem but wasn’t sure what the next step was. Instrumentation may have given a warning, but you never know. There is no guarantee,” he said.
Womack said he is most pleased that this conversation is occurring.
He said he was with the committee for nearly two hours and described the experience as enlightening and positive.
“The outcome of the bridge collapse was that it got the discussion going. It is unfortunate it takes a tragedy to get us to do this,” he said.
The discussion, Womack said, is perhaps the greatest thing to come out of the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the Congressional hearing.
“We have to be sure that something positive comes out of this disaster,” Womack said. “We can’t let (the discussion) die in a few months and then go on our merry way like we have before. We have to continue to talk and prevent collapses in the future.”
-arie.k@aggiemail.usu.edu