STC - Rural Bridge Replacement & Repair Innovations
Soy Transportation Coaliation
Author
04/06/2021
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15
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Description
Ankeny, Iowa — Rural roads and bridges serve as the initial link in the overall supply chain – allowing the soybeans and grain produced on a farm to be eventually consumed by both domestic and international customers. Of the bridges in the country classified as deficient and, in many cases, subject to closures or restricted access, a significant percentage are located in rural areas.
“Our nation’s rural bridges serve as the initial step in a lengthy journey to the ultimate customer,” explains Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC). “Unfortunately, the region of the country in which bridge conditions are most severe – rural areas – also happen to be the region in which available funding to improve these conditions is stagnant or on the decline. The concern remains that if this starting line for farmers is not well-maintained, soybeans and grain will not effectively reach the finish line in delivering to our customers.”
Given the significance of this need and the limited resources to address it, a potential response by bridge owners is to simply close or restrict access to existing bridges or hope federal, state, or local government will be willing and able to supply the necessary revenue. While pursuing increased investment is appropriate and closing or placing restrictions on certain rural bridges may be prudent, increased energy and attention must be devoted to addressing the cost side of the equation and making existing tax dollars stretch further.
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- [00:00:01.210]Great topics to talk about,
- [00:00:03.920]'cause we all know that if we're gonna fix
- [00:00:05.380]the bridge problems that we have in the state,
- [00:00:09.250]we're gonna have to get more funding
- [00:00:10.590]but we're also gonna have to innovate,
- [00:00:12.470]I mean find different ways of doing things.
- [00:00:15.440]So we're happy to have the folks
- [00:00:17.880]from the Soy Transportation Coalition with us today,
- [00:00:21.650]they've done some work in this area.
- [00:00:25.020]So they're going to talk to us
- [00:00:26.050]about different bridge innovation ideas.
- [00:00:28.640]And I see we have a few people
- [00:00:31.040]from the department of transportation on the line as well.
- [00:00:34.850]So they're here, learning along with us
- [00:00:38.650]but hopefully we can maybe get their take
- [00:00:41.050]on some of these alternatives as well.
- [00:00:44.530]So I want to introduce Mike Steenhook
- [00:00:47.050]from the Soy coalition.
- [00:00:49.510]We'll let him do an introduction
- [00:00:51.790]and let us know about the work that he did
- [00:00:54.277]and the report that they have available.
- [00:00:56.500]So Mike, take it away.
- [00:01:01.670]Okay, and is my screen coming up?
- [00:01:07.120]Okay, Great. Yes.
- [00:01:09.230]Well, Mitch and Phyllis, thank you for the invitation
- [00:01:12.980]and it's a pleasure to be with you today.
- [00:01:15.290]And just wanted to say at the outset
- [00:01:17.650]that I appreciate the work that Nebraska LTAP does,
- [00:01:22.040]I appreciate the work that LTAP do across the country
- [00:01:25.110]and I believe in that mission.
- [00:01:27.610]You do important work and in your own little way
- [00:01:30.820]you make the world a better place,
- [00:01:32.120]particularly for those of us who live in,
- [00:01:34.450]for those who live in rural America
- [00:01:36.310]who are engaged in agriculture, that work is very important.
- [00:01:42.230]I see that some of the folks
- [00:01:44.440]from the Nebraska DOT are on the call as well.
- [00:01:48.150]I saw Floyd jump on the webinar
- [00:01:52.002]and I've had the pleasure of interfacing
- [00:01:55.530]with a number of folks who audit a number
- [00:01:57.380]of other folks at the Nebraska DOT.
- [00:01:59.740]And so thank you for the work that you do,
- [00:02:02.660]I've always enjoyed our interaction.
- [00:02:07.320]Just to kind of tee off the discussion,
- [00:02:09.880]I want to just to explain what this is not.
- [00:02:12.987]This is not a farmer funded farmer led group
- [00:02:17.350]that has anointed ourselves to ride in on on a white horse
- [00:02:22.920]and provide all of the answers.
- [00:02:25.140]What this is, is a farmer organization
- [00:02:31.220]that cares significantly
- [00:02:32.810]about the condition of our infrastructure,
- [00:02:34.620]particularly that first link in our supply chain,
- [00:02:38.170]that farm to market system which includes bridges,
- [00:02:42.470]to play a more productive role
- [00:02:45.760]in advancing some of these concepts
- [00:02:47.700]that would provide benefit to rural America.
- [00:02:52.520]So no one anointed us to be engaged in this.
- [00:02:58.160]Again, we're trying be helpful,
- [00:03:00.790]and we're trying to do our part
- [00:03:02.920]to try to elevate some of these concepts.
- [00:03:05.770]And I think farmers are very well positioned
- [00:03:08.270]to be advocates for this
- [00:03:09.950]because farmers are among the most grassroots
- [00:03:14.203]of constituent groups.
- [00:03:17.710]And the fact that I think farmers,
- [00:03:20.950]kind of as a part of their brand ID
- [00:03:24.450]is they've got this reputation
- [00:03:26.120]that when there is a challenge or a dilemma
- [00:03:31.590]on their own farm operation, most farmers I know
- [00:03:35.470]the default position is to not just open up their wallets
- [00:03:39.310]and spend more money.
- [00:03:40.870]And just having this opinion that,
- [00:03:44.710]solving all of our problems
- [00:03:47.090]is a function of spending more money.
- [00:03:49.520]Most farmers that I know when there's a problem on the farm,
- [00:03:52.900]their default position is how can I be creative?
- [00:03:56.420]How can I be innovative?
- [00:03:59.770]And maybe come up with a way to solve this problem
- [00:04:05.227]by not necessarily spending money.
- [00:04:09.720]And so that's kind of part of the brand ID of farmers
- [00:04:13.740]and there's kind of this sentiment that,
- [00:04:18.189]are you going to spend your way out of a problem
- [00:04:20.470]or are you going to save your way out of the problem?
- [00:04:23.480]A lot of times we need both,
- [00:04:25.330]but I do think from a public policy perspective,
- [00:04:27.870]a lot of times we fixate on spending our way
- [00:04:30.820]out of problems.
- [00:04:32.370]And you'll hear me say repeatedly
- [00:04:34.610]the need for greater degrees of investment
- [00:04:36.790]in our infrastructure including our rural infrastructure,
- [00:04:39.620]that's something I talk about a lot.
- [00:04:41.060]That's something our organization talks a lot about,
- [00:04:44.340]but we also do believe that we need to focus on
- [00:04:49.550]saving our way out of the problem as well.
- [00:04:53.260]What this is also not is,
- [00:04:55.530]you'll see the list that we've developed.
- [00:04:57.960]This is not an exhaustive list,
- [00:04:59.630]this is not the top 20 concepts
- [00:05:02.720]for repairing and replacing rural bridges,
- [00:05:05.490]this is not exhaustive.
- [00:05:07.230]There are other valuable concepts
- [00:05:10.490]that have been developed, that have been utilized
- [00:05:15.600]that are worthy of consideration and worthy of adoption.
- [00:05:21.740]And so this certainly is not exhaustive.
- [00:05:24.760]So I want to just to kind of say that at the outset,
- [00:05:29.980]to kind of frame what this discussion is gonna be
- [00:05:32.997]and what our role in promoting it is.
- [00:05:36.980]The Soy Transportation Coalition,
- [00:05:38.590]for those of you who aren't acquainted with it,
- [00:05:41.200]is again, a farmer funded farmer led entity
- [00:05:45.230]that is comprised of 13 States Soybean Boards
- [00:05:49.510]or Associations.
- [00:05:53.240]The Nebraska Soybean Board is one of those 13.
- [00:05:56.530]So have a number of farmers from Nebraska who sit on
- [00:06:01.430]the Soy Transportation Coalition board of directors.
- [00:06:04.520]We also have the two national Soybean farmer groups,
- [00:06:07.390]the American Soybean Association
- [00:06:09.370]which is the national public policy lobbying entity
- [00:06:15.160]on behalf of US Soybean farmers.
- [00:06:17.180]And then also the United Soybean Board
- [00:06:20.839]which they administer what's called
- [00:06:22.170]the national soybean checkoff program
- [00:06:24.140]which is some funding that serves to help promote
- [00:06:29.930]the overall profitability of the industry.
- [00:06:32.840]So the two national soybean groups,
- [00:06:35.130]and then these 13 state soybean associations.
- [00:06:38.170]My office is based
- [00:06:39.790]in the Iowa Soybean Association building.
- [00:06:43.310]Prior to doing this job,
- [00:06:45.670]I worked for a US Senator from Iowa, Chuck Grassley.
- [00:06:50.360]So I have very much a public policy background
- [00:06:53.740]but the work that we do really focuses on
- [00:06:55.810]each link in the supply chain that farmers depend upon.
- [00:06:59.120]So you will find me working
- [00:07:01.360]on a rural road and bridge issue,
- [00:07:03.080]a highway and interstate issue, a freight rail system,
- [00:07:08.250]the condition of our inland waterways
- [00:07:10.020]which involves our locks and dams and barge transportation,
- [00:07:13.320]as well as the condition of our ports.
- [00:07:16.070]Of all of the agricultural products
- [00:07:18.390]planted in the United States,
- [00:07:19.710]Soybeans are the number one export.
- [00:07:22.590]And so because of that,
- [00:07:25.840]and because of, we have so many of our customers
- [00:07:29.190]are located halfway around the world.
- [00:07:31.490]For the soybean industry to be profitable,
- [00:07:33.940]it's not just a function of growing the crop
- [00:07:36.420]and it's not just a function
- [00:07:37.470]of finding demand for that crop,
- [00:07:40.120]we also have to have connectivity between supply and demand.
- [00:07:44.630]And that's what our multimodal transportation system does.
- [00:07:47.620]So farmers have,
- [00:07:48.830]particularly soybean farmers have grown increasingly aware
- [00:07:53.460]that infrastructure has to be a priority issue.
- [00:07:57.510]And so that was really the impetus
- [00:07:59.580]behind creating the Soy Transportation Coalition.
- [00:08:03.740]Topic at hand relates to--
- [00:08:05.690]Hey Mike. Yes.
- [00:08:07.970]Can you go to presentation mode,
- [00:08:09.480]so it's a little bigger on the screen?
- [00:08:12.170]Sure. I'm sorry to interrupt.
- [00:08:14.410]There we go. Perfect, yeah, thank you.
- [00:08:17.640]Yep, thanks for suggesting that.
- [00:08:21.010]So the topic at hand relates to our rural bridges
- [00:08:26.030]and the way I like to frame it as the the challenge
- [00:08:30.470]is that the area of the country
- [00:08:32.940]where the condition of bridges is most dire
- [00:08:37.440]or most acute also happens to be the area of the country
- [00:08:40.090]where resources are the most scarce or on the decline,
- [00:08:43.930]and that's rural America.
- [00:08:46.180]And we're quite familiar with all of the statistics
- [00:08:50.470]listing the percentage or the number
- [00:08:52.730]of structurally deficient bridges throughout the country
- [00:08:56.070]and how there's a real high concentration of those
- [00:08:59.500]in rural America.
- [00:09:01.840]So the problem is quite pronounced,
- [00:09:05.130]and as we know, a lot of rural counties
- [00:09:10.240]can easily have 100 to 300 or even over 300 bridges
- [00:09:16.800]for one particular rural county.
- [00:09:18.630]And replacing those rural bridges
- [00:09:20.740]can easily cost in the ballpark of $250,000-$500,000,
- [00:09:26.230]it could even be greater than that.
- [00:09:29.220]But then you when you aggregate the amount of funding,
- [00:09:32.600]whether it's from the federal government
- [00:09:34.100]or the state government or local governments
- [00:09:37.820]and you aggregate it all together,
- [00:09:40.100]and that will be the pot of money
- [00:09:42.820]for a county to replace a repair their bridge inventory,
- [00:09:47.150]you know that can sometimes be $500,000.
- [00:09:50.760]I've had some counties that said, I wish I had $500,000.
- [00:09:54.850]It can certainly extend to a million dollars or greater
- [00:09:57.710]but you don't have to be a mathematician to be able to see
- [00:10:02.100]that the ends don't meet
- [00:10:03.690]and there is going to be this lingering challenge
- [00:10:06.740]for rural communities and rural counties.
- [00:10:09.860]And so therefore, because of that,
- [00:10:12.120]we've got a number of options that are available to us.
- [00:10:14.680]We can simply close or restrict access
- [00:10:18.740]to some of these bridges, and I acknowledge
- [00:10:20.900]that there are times where that is indeed necessary.
- [00:10:24.860]We can just simply liquidate all of the funding
- [00:10:27.150]that we have available.
- [00:10:29.560]We can, number 3, we can hope for more funding
- [00:10:32.600]from other sources and again I think that always should be
- [00:10:36.080]something that we advocate for.
- [00:10:39.370]But my opinion is that if we pin all of our hopes
- [00:10:42.410]on federal government or state government
- [00:10:45.100]or local government writing a check
- [00:10:47.740]and providing sufficient funding
- [00:10:49.880]to address all of our needs,
- [00:10:51.190]I think we're gonna be a very disappointed group of people.
- [00:10:54.470]So I think we also need to do, number 4,
- [00:10:56.210]we need to embrace opportunities to decrease costs
- [00:10:59.290]and stretch the taxpayer dollar further.
- [00:11:01.910]And I think that's really the question
- [00:11:04.170]for whether you're a policy maker in Lincoln
- [00:11:09.300]or you're a county elected official
- [00:11:11.160]or if you're a federal elected official
- [00:11:13.350]or you're someone who actually has responsibility
- [00:11:16.360]for managing their rural bridge inventory.
- [00:11:20.300]The question is,
- [00:11:21.760]what is my plan for extending the taxpayer dollar further?
- [00:11:27.026]Or is it just simply hoping for more money?
- [00:11:29.810]And again, I think it needs to be a combination
- [00:11:33.950]of all of those.
- [00:11:35.290]So we decided as an organization to produce a report,
- [00:11:42.557]again, called "The Top 20 Innovations
- [00:11:44.670]for Rural Bridge Replacement and Repair."
- [00:11:47.200]There's nothing magical about the number 20
- [00:11:50.150]but the goal was to develop a list
- [00:11:54.650]that's a relatable number.
- [00:11:56.730]So we want it to have enough sufficient number of concepts,
- [00:12:00.500]so that it's relatable to a wide stretch of rural America
- [00:12:05.060]but we obviously didn't want it to be exhaustive.
- [00:12:07.690]I think one of the easiest ways
- [00:12:09.620]for this report to not be read
- [00:12:12.810]would be if it was the top 256 innovations
- [00:12:17.220]for rural bridge replacement and repair.
- [00:12:19.220]So we wanted it to be a relatable number.
- [00:12:21.880]So we have this list of 10 concepts
- [00:12:24.960]that are related to replacing bridges,
- [00:12:27.380]10 concepts for repairing bridges, so 20 total.
- [00:12:31.180]And the criteria that were established
- [00:12:35.980]was that these concepts had to,
- [00:12:38.170]number 1, provide notable whether it's initial
- [00:12:41.760]or lifecycle cost savings,
- [00:12:44.200]so it had to save money.
- [00:12:46.390]Number 2, it had to be validated
- [00:12:48.050]by a credible engineering entity or organization.
- [00:12:51.750]So, we didn't want any of these concepts
- [00:12:54.970]to be hypotheticals.
- [00:12:56.510]We didn't want any kind of snake oil
- [00:12:58.530]to work its way into this list.
- [00:13:02.100]We wanted to make sure that it was affirmed
- [00:13:04.860]by a credible engineering organization.
- [00:13:08.150]So whether it's the Federal Highway Administration
- [00:13:10.790]or Purdue University or North Dakota State University
- [00:13:15.230]or Iowa State.
- [00:13:18.110]When a reader of the report sees these concepts
- [00:13:22.290]and then there's always a link to the actual research
- [00:13:28.370]in the promotional document,
- [00:13:29.600]on the profile of each individual concept,
- [00:13:32.410]the reader will say, aha, that is a credible entity.
- [00:13:36.710]And then they can have quick access to the actual research.
- [00:13:39.890]So it had to be affirmed by a credible engineering entity
- [00:13:42.260]and then number 3, it had to be widely accessible
- [00:13:44.930]throughout rural America.
- [00:13:45.990]Clearly there are, some of these concepts
- [00:13:47.860]will be applicable here but not so much there.
- [00:13:51.030]But what we didn't want to do is have,
- [00:13:53.610]feature a concept that is only applicable
- [00:13:56.670]in one particular county, in one particular state.
- [00:14:00.160]We wanted to feature concepts that someone in Ohio
- [00:14:06.200]or someone in Nebraska or North Dakota or Missouri
- [00:14:08.890]will all be able to look at
- [00:14:10.000]and say, ah, there are some concepts there
- [00:14:13.360]that really are relatable to me, in our experience,
- [00:14:16.410]in our topography and geography.
- [00:14:18.920]So the Soy Transportation Coalition,
- [00:14:21.520]so I established the criteria
- [00:14:24.320]for what would make its way onto the list,
- [00:14:27.470]but I didn't select the list myself
- [00:14:29.670]'cause I'm not an engineer.
- [00:14:31.420]So what we did is we assembled
- [00:14:33.560]a group of 13 bridge engineers and experts,
- [00:14:38.550]again from each of the 13 STC States.
- [00:14:41.350]So at least one engineer or expert
- [00:14:43.610]from each of the 13 States to either be a principal analyst,
- [00:14:48.610]we had 3 principal analysts, and Brian Keierleber
- [00:14:53.170]who will participate during the Q&A
- [00:14:56.497]at the conclusion of my comments,
- [00:14:59.250]who's a County engineer from Buchanan County Island,
- [00:15:03.370]the Northeast part of the state, former president
- [00:15:06.000]of the National Association of County engineers.
- [00:15:09.680]He was one of the 3 principle analysts
- [00:15:11.820]and then we had 10 advisory committee members.
- [00:15:14.540]So this was the group that actually
- [00:15:16.170]selected the the concepts
- [00:15:18.350]and whenever you assemble 13 people together,
- [00:15:21.990]including 13 engineers,
- [00:15:24.900]you're not gonna get 100% consensus.
- [00:15:27.600]So, there would be some who would say,
- [00:15:30.100]I think this concept, I would put this concept in there
- [00:15:33.530]instead of that concept,
- [00:15:34.680]that seems like the group is rallying around,
- [00:15:37.270]but that's very natural for that to occur.
- [00:15:41.920]But again, what we wanted to make sure
- [00:15:44.040]is that anything that was included in the list
- [00:15:46.150]meets those 3 criteria.
- [00:15:48.350]So that was the group that actually selected these concepts.
- [00:15:52.550]So how we think we can play a role as a farmer organization
- [00:15:58.030]is that we think we can really help amplify these concepts.
- [00:16:02.480]And I think many of us have experienced the situation
- [00:16:08.230]where you'll be aware of a good idea,
- [00:16:12.180]a real innovative concept,
- [00:16:14.640]but you're kind of frustrated
- [00:16:15.610]because you're not seeing it widely embraced.
- [00:16:18.280]And you're thinking this idea is really good
- [00:16:20.677]and it's really compelling,
- [00:16:21.960]why am I not seeing it more readily embraced?
- [00:16:26.840]It's been my experience
- [00:16:28.310]that that is due to one of three things
- [00:16:31.110]or a combination of these three things.
- [00:16:33.590]Number 1, there's a lack of awareness of that good idea,
- [00:16:36.840]so people have no, they're not familiar with it at all.
- [00:16:42.470]Or number 2, it could be a lack of understanding
- [00:16:44.240]of that good idea.
- [00:16:45.100]So there might be some kind of faint awareness of it,
- [00:16:47.990]but they don't really truly understand
- [00:16:50.140]what makes this concept special or what makes it compelling.
- [00:16:53.840]Or number 3, which I would argue is the most common
- [00:16:57.210]is a lack of motivation.
- [00:16:59.160]And that's where you may have someone
- [00:17:01.810]who may be aware of these good ideas
- [00:17:04.760]and innovative concepts, they understand it,
- [00:17:06.570]but just because it doesn't conform
- [00:17:09.280]with the way they've always done things for many years
- [00:17:12.940]or maybe they're just so overwhelmed
- [00:17:15.050]with the other parts of their inbox,
- [00:17:17.030]that they don't have a real openness to these new ideas.
- [00:17:22.804]We think farmers, given the fact
- [00:17:24.630]that we're very much a grassroots organization,
- [00:17:27.280]and again, we have this reach throughout the country
- [00:17:29.390]especially among these 13 States,
- [00:17:31.790]we have a real opportunity to increase that awareness,
- [00:17:35.700]to increase that understanding
- [00:17:37.890]and to increase that motivation.
- [00:17:41.170]So this is the group that was assembled,
- [00:17:43.210]again, these 13 bridge engineers and experts.
- [00:17:46.500]I won't go through the entire list,
- [00:17:48.220]so again, Brian Keierleber will be participating
- [00:17:52.176]in the webinar.
- [00:17:53.970]The individual from Nebraska,
- [00:17:55.580]Josh Steelman from the University of Nebraska
- [00:17:58.640]was one of the individuals who can review the list
- [00:18:01.820]and provide some feedback.
- [00:18:03.770]And so, I was very pleased with the participation.
- [00:18:08.660]And again, we have a number of of LTAP officials
- [00:18:11.700]that were a part of the group from Indiana,
- [00:18:15.010]North Dakota, South Dakota, a handful of Tennessee,
- [00:18:21.100]a number of LTAP officials that were either
- [00:18:24.620]principal analysts or advisory committee members.
- [00:18:28.560]This is the list that we came up with,
- [00:18:30.060]and again, I'm not gonna go through every single one of them
- [00:18:33.230]but this is the 10 replacement innovations,
- [00:18:35.430]the 10 bridge repair innovations.
- [00:18:38.160]What I'm gonna do is just go through,
- [00:18:41.010]just highlight what our promotional document looks like.
- [00:18:45.030]So again, you can go to soytransportation.org,
- [00:18:48.550]I can provide the, the actual promotional document
- [00:18:52.400]to Nebraska LTAP if they want to post it.
- [00:18:55.550]So you can see it in its entirety,
- [00:18:57.470]but this is, I just wanted to highlight
- [00:19:00.472]what the actual document looks like
- [00:19:03.340]and what's the information that we're providing.
- [00:19:06.460]The goal of the document
- [00:19:07.730]is not to be a real technical document.
- [00:19:10.870]So the audience for this is policymakers, state legislators,
- [00:19:17.850]county elected officials, agricultural media,
- [00:19:22.250]farm organizations,
- [00:19:24.830]those who don't necessarily have an engineering degree.
- [00:19:29.490]But then what we wanted to make sure
- [00:19:31.610]is that we feature the source of the research
- [00:19:36.170]so that if someone wants to do the deeper dive
- [00:19:38.810]and wants to see the...
- [00:19:41.940]They have more technical questions
- [00:19:43.560]that they want to see addressed,
- [00:19:44.660]they can have quick access to that.
- [00:19:47.310]So we feature things like the cost savings,
- [00:19:51.500]is it applicable throughout rural America?
- [00:19:54.760]Are you sacrificing anything
- [00:19:58.160]from a structural integrity perspective?
- [00:20:00.300]Construction time, those kinds of things.
- [00:20:03.590]So this is one of the concepts that the group
- [00:20:07.500]really agreed is very compelling and it's being practiced
- [00:20:12.920]in a number of areas of the country.
- [00:20:14.740]Brian has had tremendous success
- [00:20:17.690]in embracing this method in Buchanan County, Iowa.
- [00:20:21.090]He has replaced, I don't know,
- [00:20:23.750]just shy of 30 rural bridges using this method.
- [00:20:27.250]And so you can do the math
- [00:20:28.960]about what kind of savings that is generated
- [00:20:31.360]for Buchanan County, Iowa
- [00:20:32.710]just by employing this particular method.
- [00:20:35.630]So the use of railroad flat cars
- [00:20:38.160]can easily result in a $150,000 savings per bridge.
- [00:20:47.560]You're not sacrificing the structural integrity,
- [00:20:50.570]it can support legal loads, it's quicker to construct.
- [00:20:56.060]You know this was just a very compelling way
- [00:20:58.130]of replacing rural bridges.
- [00:20:59.470]And here is some photos that you'll see
- [00:21:03.110]in Buchanan County, Iowa
- [00:21:05.020]and when I've visited that area
- [00:21:08.500]you really have to kind of examine it more closely
- [00:21:11.520]to notice that it is a railroad flatcar bridge.
- [00:21:16.240]And I just, in my interface with rural counties
- [00:21:20.510]throughout the country,
- [00:21:21.343]I don't know of a whole lot of rural counties
- [00:21:23.330]that wouldn't embrace the opportunity
- [00:21:24.940]to save a $100,000/$150,000 on a single bridge,
- [00:21:29.750]again without sacrificing structural integrity.
- [00:21:32.500]So I think a very interesting and compelling and concepts.
- [00:21:37.130]One of the concepts that the folks in our advisory committee
- [00:21:42.190]and the principal analysts really think is very innovative,
- [00:21:47.310]and a number of people called it a game changer,
- [00:21:50.560]is the whole process of how you drive piling
- [00:21:54.990]into the ground if your bridge requires piling.
- [00:21:59.270]And this whole concept of moving from impact pile driving
- [00:22:05.570]to this vibratory H-piling method
- [00:22:08.950]can have very pronounced savings,
- [00:22:11.040]the cost savings of in excess of 90%.
- [00:22:13.040]So the cost of driving 10 piling into the ground
- [00:22:16.810]via this method will cost you $2,000 versus 25-$40,000
- [00:22:22.480]via the traditional impact pile driving method.
- [00:22:27.130]It's safer, it's faster, It's much more cost-effective.
- [00:22:31.180]Again, I don't know of a rural County
- [00:22:34.430]that wouldn't love to achieve
- [00:22:39.300]a driving 10 piling into the ground
- [00:22:42.180]for $2,000 versus 25-$40,000.
- [00:22:47.200]This is what it looks like.
- [00:22:48.370]So it's just simply, you're attaching
- [00:22:50.900]that vibratory hammer to an excavator
- [00:22:53.860]and essentially vibrating that piling into the ground.
- [00:22:57.690]This is a photo from, from Northeast Iowa
- [00:23:02.200]where it's being utilized
- [00:23:03.820]and Brian has some experiences with that
- [00:23:05.650]so if you have any specific questions related to this
- [00:23:08.930]Brian would be able to answer those.
- [00:23:11.100]Another concept that a lot of people think highly of
- [00:23:14.360]is the use of buried soil structures.
- [00:23:16.520]Again, replacing a rural bridge for 75-$95,000
- [00:23:21.230]versus 150-$200,000.
- [00:23:23.790]Significant cost savings, savings on time to construct
- [00:23:28.930]equal to the prevailing method
- [00:23:30.408]regarding to structural integrity.
- [00:23:33.140]This is what it looks like.
- [00:23:34.237]And again I like the thought and the fact
- [00:23:38.760]that you can actually drive to these places.
- [00:23:41.530]This is not, again, these are not concepts
- [00:23:44.157]that someone did a back of the envelope kind of analysis
- [00:23:50.650]and came up with a eureka idea
- [00:23:53.670]that these are actual concepts
- [00:23:55.860]that you can go and visit and drive over.
- [00:23:58.850]And so, and there are testimonials of engineers
- [00:24:02.010]who have used them and think highly of them.
- [00:24:05.760]Another concept that I did want to feature
- [00:24:10.350]related to bridge repair that's something
- [00:24:12.970]that we're actually spending a lot of time on this year
- [00:24:16.000]is the use of penetrating concrete sealers
- [00:24:19.574]and this is a process that a lot of engineers
- [00:24:23.990]who have had success with.
- [00:24:26.880]What we're excited about,
- [00:24:28.670]personally from our perspective
- [00:24:30.470]is some of these products are soybean oil based.
- [00:24:35.240]So they don't have any toxicity,
- [00:24:38.220]you don't need to use personal protective equipment
- [00:24:42.050]when you apply it.
- [00:24:43.070]It's got a great message,
- [00:24:44.220]so you're along elongating the useful life
- [00:24:45.980]of the bridge or of the road.
- [00:24:49.630]So you're practicing good stewardship.
- [00:24:51.680]You have a product that is produced from soybeans,
- [00:24:55.910]so you're supporting the local economy.
- [00:24:59.290]It's also environmentally sustainable,
- [00:25:02.580]so you're really hitting some of these,
- [00:25:04.900]you're checking some of these very important boxes
- [00:25:08.650]that a lot of people care about
- [00:25:10.590]and we increasingly care about.
- [00:25:12.820]So with that, I am going to turn it over to Brian.
- [00:25:19.450]I'm gonna back up to the list of bridge replacement
- [00:25:24.060]and bridge repair innovations,
- [00:25:25.380]I'll just have them up on the slide.
- [00:25:27.280]I'm gonna turn it over to Brian
- [00:25:28.550]and invite any kind of thoughts
- [00:25:30.710]that he has about some of these concepts
- [00:25:34.270]that he has successfully utilized.
- [00:25:36.500]And then there'll be an opportunity
- [00:25:38.190]to pose any questions certainly of me.
- [00:25:41.170]But then obviously,
- [00:25:42.003]if you have a more of a technical question,
- [00:25:44.730]Brian is very well positioned to address those.
- [00:25:47.970]So Brian, I'll turn it over to you.
- [00:25:49.948]Good morning, everyone.
- [00:25:52.710]Just a little background,
- [00:25:53.720]I'm gonna continue on what Mike was talking about there
- [00:25:56.800]with the penetrating concrete sealers.
- [00:25:58.580]'Cause there's an excellent chance,
- [00:26:01.030]there seems to be some interest
- [00:26:02.210]in having a little field demonstration here.
- [00:26:04.370]My guys have been doing it and we think we've got it down
- [00:26:07.860]to where I can get the vast majority of my bridge decks
- [00:26:11.680]on my paved roads treated in a day or two's timeframe.
- [00:26:17.110]It's gone extremely well for us
- [00:26:19.920]and we're trying to get it set up
- [00:26:22.890]and we'll come in with the hydro-patcher,
- [00:26:26.240]hydro-mulcher, excuse me,
- [00:26:27.920]which I do have a hydro mulcher.
- [00:26:29.640]And I use that as my water source
- [00:26:30.990]to wash off the bridge and then spray it,
- [00:26:33.460]after I spray it with the sealers after that.
- [00:26:35.991]And we think we've got it down
- [00:26:38.100]to where we'll have a little demonstration on it.
- [00:26:41.380]We'll kind of look at the top of this list,
- [00:26:42.910]the railroad flat car bridges, and Mike's right,
- [00:26:45.140]I've got 30 of them at the present time
- [00:26:47.580]and my guys are getting ready to build a couple more
- [00:26:50.250]this summer.
- [00:26:51.180]My bridge crew is 3 people
- [00:26:53.550]and the 3 people can generally build me a bridge
- [00:26:57.010]in about 6 week timeframe,
- [00:26:59.970]depending on all the conditions and the weather, of course.
- [00:27:03.580]Putting it in perspective, I'm getting the cars delivered
- [00:27:06.400]for about 15-$18,000 per car.
- [00:27:11.117]And so if I need something 30 feet wide,
- [00:27:13.860]that's my biggest expense on there
- [00:27:15.630]that whatever I've got for a substructure.
- [00:27:19.020]I've done 6 geosynthetics reinforced soil abutments.
- [00:27:24.880]And that's where you lay the fabric
- [00:27:26.550]and the standard method that was developed
- [00:27:29.880]and really researched
- [00:27:32.610]by the Federal Highway Administration
- [00:27:35.210]was what they're doing in Indiana,
- [00:27:37.770]and use the CMU block.
- [00:27:41.010]We started doing a burrito wrap
- [00:27:42.790]and putting sheet piling in there.
- [00:27:44.290]And that way I'd take care of my scour issues.
- [00:27:47.190]It's easier to construct,
- [00:27:49.160]my guys don't necessarily like stack and block.
- [00:27:52.410]And it's gotten real well for us,
- [00:27:56.350]but the vibratory H-piling drivers have made that so fast
- [00:28:00.000]and smooth that we're just happy going back
- [00:28:02.790]to the steel H-pile driven in the ground that way
- [00:28:05.240]for our substructures.
- [00:28:08.160]Buried soil structures, I do have six of them,
- [00:28:11.960]excuse me, three of them.
- [00:28:13.031]And it looks like I'll be building another one
- [00:28:15.150]in the near future too.
- [00:28:17.070]Time and the place for everything is what it amounts to.
- [00:28:19.790]And I've got a lot of these old wooden bridges,
- [00:28:21.760]in this 20, 30, 40 foot categories
- [00:28:25.190]where the piling in there is as good as the day
- [00:28:28.910]they drove the piling when you get down below the waterline
- [00:28:31.480]back for the air never gets to it.
- [00:28:33.020]They don't rot out.
- [00:28:35.007]And so you can cut them off for a footing around there
- [00:28:37.890]and use those for your buried soil structure.
- [00:28:41.214]It's an excellent way,
- [00:28:44.142]if you could still handle your hydraulics in there.
- [00:28:47.850]The galvanized H-piling is something
- [00:28:50.440]that's really quite new in the sense that we're,
- [00:28:56.930]it saved me tremendously on one bridge
- [00:28:59.280]and we're looking at doing more and more of it.
- [00:29:02.070]What happened is it was one of those falls
- [00:29:04.180]that kept raining and raining or years it kept raining
- [00:29:07.600]and the contractor could never get in to build cofferdams,
- [00:29:11.400]but we had gone ahead then galvanized
- [00:29:13.850]and coated the H-filing
- [00:29:15.080]and not try to encase them in concrete.
- [00:29:17.940]And because of that we were able to get the bridge built
- [00:29:21.450]about 6 months earlier than we would have otherwise.
- [00:29:24.000]It was open in December of 2018
- [00:29:27.500]rather than the summer of 2019.
- [00:29:31.160]The spring of 2019 was just a complete disaster
- [00:29:34.290]around here with the frost boils.
- [00:29:35.850]Had I had left this paved road closed off
- [00:29:38.560]for the additional 6 months, 5 months
- [00:29:41.940]it would have been a real mess.
- [00:29:44.490]Press break tub girders are really interesting
- [00:29:49.690]new system that's being used quite a bit.
- [00:29:55.880]They worked at most of the research
- [00:29:57.480]was back on the East coast
- [00:29:58.950]on this particularly West Virginia University
- [00:30:02.210]and South Carolina.
- [00:30:04.440]But Valmont there in Nebraska
- [00:30:09.810]is now producing them there in Valley Nebraska, Valley city.
- [00:30:14.500]I've never been to their plants
- [00:30:15.770]but Valmont's produced them there in Nebraska.
- [00:30:19.130]In Michigan, there's some counties
- [00:30:21.140]that say that they replaced the bridge
- [00:30:23.270]for less than 20% of their federal matching would have been.
- [00:30:26.460]Now, what they did is they took the old superstructure off,
- [00:30:29.710]use the substructure and put the tubs on it.
- [00:30:32.420]I've built one with where I used it on GRS-IBS.
- [00:30:37.330]And I think that has a tremendous potential
- [00:30:41.610]and you're gonna see more and more of it used.
- [00:30:45.610]Galvanized steel beams is just a method
- [00:30:48.990]where you can use the steel beams out there
- [00:30:51.300]and never have to ever worry about painting them.
- [00:30:54.440]And so it's kind of a method of making sure
- [00:30:57.563]you get a long life out of there.
- [00:30:59.330]The prestressed precast double tees.
- [00:31:02.230]And I haven't done that yet,
- [00:31:04.510]we've done a lot of wooden slabs and such as that
- [00:31:07.630]at Wahoo Nebraska there.
- [00:31:09.780]Yes, I take them clear up to Northeast Island
- [00:31:11.940]and build bridges out of them.
- [00:31:14.770]And so there's a place for them,
- [00:31:17.540]absolutely is a place for them,
- [00:31:19.110]they would work real well again with your fabric abutment,
- [00:31:21.880]with the GRS-IBS.
- [00:31:24.330]The precast inverted double tees
- [00:31:26.350]and we haven't done a lot of that around here either.
- [00:31:29.870]On the repairs, piling encasements.
- [00:31:34.849]And I've got a lot of problems with my concrete decaying
- [00:31:39.630]around the steel H-piling.
- [00:31:42.310]And so I'm going back in,
- [00:31:44.500]and basically the first one we did
- [00:31:48.463]was a proprietary type repair where they used a fabric.
- [00:31:54.950]And after we saw that first one,
- [00:31:57.560]we kinda started splitting some metal culverts
- [00:32:02.830]and Bolton angle irons on them, bolt them together that way.
- [00:32:06.115]And we would take out all the rotten concrete away
- [00:32:10.500]from the rebar and everything,
- [00:32:13.010]and then fill that back full of concrete.
- [00:32:15.660]I have used some faux concrete
- [00:32:17.410]on some of the repairs that way too,
- [00:32:19.910]which is a little easier to handle.
- [00:32:22.310]It comes in five gallon buckets
- [00:32:23.750]rather than trying to get ready
- [00:32:24.620]to mix down in there and such.
- [00:32:26.850]Concrete pier piling repairs, basically the same thing.
- [00:32:31.830]Sometimes you get some old bridges
- [00:32:35.020]that don't meet the current loadings,
- [00:32:38.870]and we have cut holes through the concrete decks,
- [00:32:42.980]driven steel H-piling through the decks,
- [00:32:47.140]cut the H-piling off, slide a beam underneath there,
- [00:32:49.970]shim it up as we need it
- [00:32:51.600]and take all the load postings off of there.
- [00:32:56.320]We've also done repairs on old piling in that way too.
- [00:33:01.030]Epoxy deck injection,
- [00:33:02.810]something the Iowa Department of Transportation
- [00:33:05.760]is doing on a very regular basis
- [00:33:08.890]and trying to educate the counties on how to do it.
- [00:33:11.910]I did set up to do that,
- [00:33:14.630]and we're working towards,
- [00:33:18.980]I won't say we were a 100% efficient,
- [00:33:20.870]I know I've got some spots I needed to go back in on.
- [00:33:24.220]And there is some interest of trying
- [00:33:26.020]to kind of set up a demonstration
- [00:33:27.810]where we do the epoxy deck injection
- [00:33:31.270]and then some decks sealing at the same time,
- [00:33:34.240]so other counties could see how we're doing that.
- [00:33:37.560]That could easily happen
- [00:33:39.730]the summer we've been visiting with Keith Knapp
- [00:33:42.200]through the Iowa LTAP on that.
- [00:33:44.410]So that's a potential that that would happen
- [00:33:46.970]where you guys can come over and see some and audit.
- [00:33:50.230]Deck overlays with type O concrete and plasticizers.
- [00:33:54.580]And Iowa uses a lot of the type O concrete,
- [00:33:59.000]and number of years ago, back in the early 80s
- [00:34:02.840]I was working for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation,
- [00:34:06.070]went on to work for the city of Bartlesville, Oklahoma
- [00:34:08.310]and we were doing the deck overlays
- [00:34:10.770]in Bartlesville, Oklahoma using the Iowa specials,
- [00:34:13.970]what they called it, that was the type O concrete.
- [00:34:17.920]Later on, when I took a job as a county engineer of Iowa
- [00:34:22.090]we had some problems with some decks
- [00:34:24.050]where we needed to be addressing them and we milled it off
- [00:34:26.610]and started putting super plasticizers
- [00:34:29.770]in the type O concrete
- [00:34:30.980]and pull them with vibratory truss screeds.
- [00:34:33.510]So we took the technology, adapted it to our needs.
- [00:34:37.220]And, that was in the early 90s,
- [00:34:40.870]I moved on to Eastern Iowa in mid 90s
- [00:34:43.550]and I've got one yet that we did in 1999.
- [00:34:48.110]Thin polymer concrete overlays,
- [00:34:50.590]and I haven't done a lot of that.
- [00:34:53.550]I know it's a technology that's being used
- [00:34:55.640]and it's something we need to keep an eye on.
- [00:34:57.630]The penetrating concrete sealers,
- [00:35:00.450]if we can get good with the penetrating concrete sealers,
- [00:35:03.860]we won't be worrying about the type O deck overlays
- [00:35:07.057]and the polymer patching and the deck patching
- [00:35:09.900]and such that way, but that is something that we need
- [00:35:15.653]to get educated on, get it down the path and do that.
- [00:35:19.890]There was a lot of concrete deck ceiling done
- [00:35:23.450]in the 80s in Iowa using linseed oil treatment
- [00:35:29.540]but we weren't seeing any significant improvements on that
- [00:35:35.360]but the sealers they've got today,
- [00:35:36.750]I'm convinced that will help us immensely.
- [00:35:41.340]And I kind of jumped over the deck patching up earlier
- [00:35:45.400]but on that we've been using some faux concrete patches
- [00:35:49.570]and lately, actually next week,
- [00:35:52.240]we're gonna be doing some patches
- [00:35:54.090]with some other polymers to that.
- [00:35:57.000]I'm not real educated on but we're looking for better ways,
- [00:36:00.500]I've got to figure out ways
- [00:36:01.810]to extend the life of these bridges.
- [00:36:04.910]And the decks are one of the key areas
- [00:36:07.170]'cause we put a lot of salt down.
- [00:36:11.530]To that effect, Mike was saying, talking about the bridges.
- [00:36:15.750]I have 260 bridges.
- [00:36:18.750]The next bridge I do is about a $3 million bridge.
- [00:36:24.300]The next bridge I do with any outside funding
- [00:36:26.400]other than my local funds is about a $3 million bridge.
- [00:36:30.070]I receive about 330,000/340,000 a year right now,
- [00:36:35.730]and that's almost 10 years of my bridge funding.
- [00:36:38.640]With 260 bridges, I can sit around that long.
- [00:36:42.970]Spot cleaning, painting steel beams,
- [00:36:45.080]it's something we haven't done a lot of
- [00:36:46.690]but there's definitely needs for that
- [00:36:50.390]and it's something we could improve on.
- [00:36:53.080]And concrete overlays on adjacent box beams.
- [00:36:55.890]And that's a technology we haven't used yet
- [00:36:59.570]but can be very practical in some areas.
- [00:37:02.190]Now, I don't know how long I've taken there all that,
- [00:37:05.290]but I think it's probably time for some questions
- [00:37:08.070]'cause I flew through a whole lot of things.
- [00:37:12.810]Well, thanks Brian.
- [00:37:13.643]So any questions from any members of the group
- [00:37:17.150]and one of the things I appreciate about Brian is,
- [00:37:20.380]in addition to his more than full-time job
- [00:37:22.560]as county engineer, he is very enthusiastic
- [00:37:27.460]about sharing his experiences, the successes
- [00:37:32.070]and also the challenges
- [00:37:33.960]in promoting some of these type of concepts,
- [00:37:37.790]and so he's always very accessible.
- [00:37:40.260]So I would encourage people to reach out with him
- [00:37:42.510]if you want to discuss this further
- [00:37:44.120]but one of the things I just would encourage those
- [00:37:47.780]on the webinar to be thinking about is,
- [00:37:50.940]maybe there's one or two of these concepts
- [00:37:53.680]that you would really like to look,
- [00:37:56.440]dive deeper into and explore further.
- [00:37:59.080]'Cause maybe it's a good solution for your particular county
- [00:38:02.940]or your particular area.
- [00:38:04.830]So, I would love for this to be a springboard
- [00:38:07.670]into that discussion.
- [00:38:09.030]And again, Brian is a good resource for that
- [00:38:11.630]but I would love to see
- [00:38:15.090]more examples of what's happening in Buchanan County
- [00:38:19.090]where you have X many number of bridges
- [00:38:22.910]that have been replaced.
- [00:38:23.840]If you replaced 10 bridges via some of these methods,
- [00:38:27.780]you can easily save your county $1 million.
- [00:38:31.600]And Brian's been talking about the 30 bridges
- [00:38:34.120]that he's replaced via the railroad flat car,
- [00:38:37.250]the half dozen or so via buried soil structures,
- [00:38:41.020]vibratory H-piling those savings really add up.
- [00:38:45.710]And that's obviously very welcomed
- [00:38:48.050]in a very resource constricted environment
- [00:38:50.260]for rural areas that we find ourselves in.
- [00:38:52.630]So any questions or comments for me?
- [00:38:57.100]Or if they're more technical in nature
- [00:38:59.140]please direct them to Brian.
- [00:39:02.400]Mike, you were talking about
- [00:39:03.410]the vibratory H-pilling driver,
- [00:39:04.930]I'm pretty sure Steve Struble over in Harrison County,
- [00:39:07.920]which is just Northeast of Omaha,
- [00:39:09.710]Harrison County, Iowa, just Northeast of Omaha
- [00:39:12.230]has a vibratory H-piling driver over there.
- [00:39:15.670]So that would be pretty close to some of these people
- [00:39:18.050]but in my case, I don't own one,
- [00:39:21.730]I get Clinton County to come over and drive my pilling.
- [00:39:24.280]Now, Clinton county is traveling close to 90 miles
- [00:39:27.010]to come up here.
- [00:39:28.810]And one Monday morning they were driving my H-pile
- [00:39:31.827]and I figured I'd go out
- [00:39:33.000]after my board of supervisors meeting.
- [00:39:35.580]I got out there about 11:30,
- [00:39:37.090]they were all done driving the pilling on that bridge,
- [00:39:39.440]all 10 of the pilling, they were loaded up,
- [00:39:41.290]ready to head back to Clinton County by noon,
- [00:39:44.900]on a Monday morning.
- [00:39:47.610]And that just shows how fast that can go,
- [00:39:49.490]and from a safety standpoint,
- [00:39:51.900]hey, the day of having to climb the leads is over
- [00:39:54.150]when you use that.
- [00:39:56.120]Yeah.
- [00:40:00.250]So given the proximity of Harrison County,
- [00:40:02.690]just across the river, there might be opportunities
- [00:40:05.370]for contracting with that particular engineer
- [00:40:09.560]to do work in Nebraska.
- [00:40:13.240]I don't know how it would share with different states
- [00:40:15.630]but I would think that that would be a possibility
- [00:40:18.120]where they could work something out, back and forth.
- [00:40:20.660]I don't know the legalities of crossing the state line.
- [00:40:23.344]Okay.
- [00:40:24.177]I know in Iowa we try to work together a lot.
- [00:40:28.003]Yeah.
- [00:40:31.421]Any questions?
- [00:40:37.730]I'm looking through the...
- [00:40:38.980]I'll turn on my camera.
- [00:40:40.940]Hi, this is Kent within DOT.
- [00:40:43.970]I'm looking through the top 20 innovations
- [00:40:45.710]for rural bridge replacement and repair PDF.
- [00:40:49.030]And many of these techniques are interesting
- [00:40:51.580]but they are also limited into their applicability.
- [00:40:54.690]And I think if information could be included
- [00:40:56.740]about where these should be considered,
- [00:40:59.330]under what's situations, there might be options
- [00:41:04.100]that would be really helpful for bridge owners
- [00:41:06.110]who are trying to make decisions.
- [00:41:08.440]Just basic things like the geometry
- [00:41:11.100]that is achievable with some of these methods
- [00:41:13.570]or the soil types that are or are not suitable
- [00:41:16.010]for a vibratory driving, a few simple technical things.
- [00:41:20.360]I realize you're trying to reach a general audience here
- [00:41:22.940]but the current presentation makes it look like
- [00:41:24.870]anybody would be crazy not to do these things
- [00:41:26.970]because it saves so much money.
- [00:41:27.803]But whereas in truth, we all know that there's limitations
- [00:41:31.540]to when these things
- [00:41:32.820]really have a chance of saving some costs,
- [00:41:35.780]they could end up just totally being not applicable
- [00:41:38.410]or actually be more expensive
- [00:41:40.370]depending on what it takes to get to use these methods.
- [00:41:44.330]Yeah.
- [00:41:45.670]Well, yeah Kent, thanks for the comment
- [00:41:47.770]and yeah, that was the challenge I wanted
- [00:41:51.910]because a lot of the audience, the intended audience
- [00:41:54.770]are non-engineers so you wanted it to be concise
- [00:42:00.960]and you want it to be aesthetic,
- [00:42:03.600]and to be able to elicit that attention and interest.
- [00:42:09.200]I didn't want to overwhelm with too much information
- [00:42:11.930]and that was certainly the balance that I tried to achieve.
- [00:42:16.583]And I'll admit it was imperfectly achieved
- [00:42:18.540]but the goal is to be able to provide it
- [00:42:22.250]in a way that is compelling, but very brief.
- [00:42:27.351]But then if the appetite is weighted to do a deeper dive
- [00:42:33.340]then you've got quick access to that research
- [00:42:36.320]where then you can see the executive summary,
- [00:42:38.880]you can see and then even the exhaustive report itself
- [00:42:43.510]if you so desire.
- [00:42:44.400]So, that's clearly what we were trying to achieve,
- [00:42:48.980]so a lot of information that we were trying to convey
- [00:42:52.570]but also in a way that's very compelling
- [00:42:55.570]for the intended audience.
- [00:42:56.640]So thanks for the comment.
- [00:42:58.670]You're welcome.
- [00:42:59.600]My concern is that people would look into this
- [00:43:01.270]and they'd think, wow, this looks really great,
- [00:43:02.670]they get fired up, they get enthusiastic.
- [00:43:04.040]And then once they get a little more information,
- [00:43:05.860]they say, oh, but ah.
- [00:43:07.740]So if you could give them just a little more
- [00:43:09.450]so they would know where this is worth looking at,
- [00:43:11.740]I think that would be beneficial.
- [00:43:13.650]Yeah.
- [00:43:14.483]Kent, if I was to try and look at it,
- [00:43:16.170]we can start out with the railroad flat cars again.
- [00:43:18.850]The only place I would not put them basically is,
- [00:43:22.040]well, first of all, the span length
- [00:43:23.580]is gonna dictate so much where you go with everything.
- [00:43:26.240]Yep.
- [00:43:27.073]And they're really, I haven't seen them down there
- [00:43:30.330]but 50 is about as short as they go
- [00:43:34.110]and 89 is pretty typical,
- [00:43:36.360]so you can take the 89 foot cars and use those.
- [00:43:39.370]That's what I regularly use.
- [00:43:43.093]And can you get a crash tested rail on there
- [00:43:45.050]and things like that, it depends on your roadway type
- [00:43:48.560]That's the issue,
- [00:43:49.393]and I look at what's going on in Iowa, in Kansas,
- [00:43:52.480]I'm not so sure how it is in Nebraska
- [00:43:54.790]but if you look at the work that they've done in Kansas
- [00:43:58.220]on the crash tested rail systems,
- [00:44:00.810]you don't have to have one of your roads flat
- [00:44:03.010]and everything.
- [00:44:04.130]I do have a rail system that I regularly use on this
- [00:44:07.280]with TriBeam system and posts.
- [00:44:10.410]And I had a brand new combine
- [00:44:13.930]that tried to take one out a couple of years ago.
- [00:44:17.010]And it didn't hold them on
- [00:44:19.630]but he went over the top of it,
- [00:44:22.920]too high. (laughs)
- [00:44:26.330]So yeah, you don't have all the answers here
- [00:44:29.910]but much like I refer back to Kansas
- [00:44:33.193]because they've done a lot of work on that
- [00:44:35.170]and we can't afford to replace all these bridges
- [00:44:38.590]is kind of the answer.
- [00:44:40.570]Kansas started out with doing a study
- [00:44:43.090]and the KDOT actually hired KU to do the study.
- [00:44:49.270]I don't think they really,
- [00:44:50.730]find out when they can economically close down these bridges
- [00:44:53.700]because they have too many bridges
- [00:44:54.917]and they can't afford them all.
- [00:44:57.570]And they didn't like the results of the study
- [00:44:59.660]'cause it kind of came back
- [00:45:02.430]if a detour is less than 4 miles
- [00:45:04.490]and the traffic counts over 10,
- [00:45:06.030]you can't afford to close the bridge done.
- [00:45:09.110]One thing Nebraska has looked at a little bit
- [00:45:11.180]on local system has been to replace bridges with,
- [00:45:15.480]what are they, I think they call them low-water crossings.
- [00:45:17.870]They're bridges that are allowed to flood seasonally.
- [00:45:20.620]So they're built at a lower elevation,
- [00:45:22.070]water flows over them a few days per year.
- [00:45:24.570]Yes.
- [00:45:25.530]And that has saved a lot of money,
- [00:45:27.160]and it's also allowed some bridges
- [00:45:28.160]to drop out of the inventory,
- [00:45:29.230]so then you're not having expenses and whatnot.
- [00:45:33.660]Has that been looked at by your group?
- [00:45:35.600]I've got several of them,
- [00:45:37.040]I've got about three of them right now.
- [00:45:39.840]And there's a time and a place for everything.
- [00:45:43.310]I got some risk in that
- [00:45:45.670]'cause I built one a couple years ago on a dead end road
- [00:45:48.320]and then somebody went on the other side
- [00:45:49.690]of the low-water crossing
- [00:45:50.960]and just build a house just slightly.
- [00:45:53.700]Yeah, and there shouldn't be times when you cannot
- [00:45:56.090]get emergency equipment in and out of there.
- [00:45:58.160]Yeah, and that's kind of my point with this.
- [00:46:00.380]I think that it's good to talk about those caveats
- [00:46:02.420]for these methods
- [00:46:03.440]so people can make good decisions about them.
- [00:46:05.160]Otherwise it looks like people
- [00:46:06.320]are being presented with a good idea
- [00:46:07.730]and they're just ignoring it.
- [00:46:09.060]But the truth is when they get into it,
- [00:46:11.140]there are limitations,
- [00:46:12.040]so almost all of these things like the low-water crossing
- [00:46:14.090]or the other methods that are here
- [00:46:17.140]The limitations, like I said,
- [00:46:18.930]I wouldn't put the railroad flat car bridges on an area
- [00:46:21.450]where I'd expect to be putting a lot of salt there.
- [00:46:24.440]Even though they're painted
- [00:46:25.480]but that's just kind of the perspective
- [00:46:27.550]I've taken on it.
- [00:46:30.090]Like I said, the crash tested rail system, even though--
- [00:46:34.640]You better be in a limited liability ownership situation
- [00:46:37.940]if you're going to put up a non crash tested rail.(laughs)
- [00:46:41.320]Not in Iowa and obviously not in Kansas either,
- [00:46:46.550]because the cost benefit analysis
- [00:46:48.620]would show that there's no significant benefit
- [00:46:51.580]to putting up a crash tested system.
- [00:46:54.710]So if you have some ways--
- [00:46:56.270]So you get hit with the lawsuits.
- [00:47:01.410]Yeah, but if I look at what I'm putting up there
- [00:47:03.640]compared to what I'm replacing, it's a good question.
- [00:47:07.990]In theory, we're not supposed to be exposed
- [00:47:10.460]and that's the same thing going on in Kansas.
- [00:47:12.760]And they did a very detailed study there
- [00:47:14.800]that I could send on to you too.
- [00:47:17.670]And I think it would be very appropriate
- [00:47:19.010]for North Dakota too.
- [00:47:21.120]Basically you want straight, they have some guidelines
- [00:47:24.210]and it's straight stretches of road,
- [00:47:26.410]they have some limitations on traffic,
- [00:47:28.450]but there is a time and a place,
- [00:47:32.930]the time and a place for all it it's kind of the answer
- [00:47:35.190]and it's not evident.
- [00:47:38.978]Hey guys, this is Mark Trainwhich
- [00:47:42.310]Hey Mike and Brian,
- [00:47:44.124]thanks for your presentations, I appreciate it.
- [00:47:46.940]Always interesting to hear what's going on out there.
- [00:47:50.200]Brian, I heard you talk, the GRS abutments.
- [00:47:53.778]We've done one or two, we've done one in Nebraska
- [00:47:58.127]and I know there's been some by federal highway,
- [00:48:00.680]at least one that's been done in Nebraska.
- [00:48:03.010]I heard you mentioned instead of the blocks,
- [00:48:05.810]if you do them you're driving piling.
- [00:48:08.220]Sheet piling.
- [00:48:09.200]Did I hear that right?
- [00:48:10.320]That is correct.
- [00:48:11.200]Okay, but then I think I also heard you said
- [00:48:13.410]because of the vibratory H-pile driving,
- [00:48:15.770]you've gotten away from the GRS a little bit
- [00:48:17.970]'cause you feel that that H-pile vibratory driving
- [00:48:21.550]might be a little better for you or faster.
- [00:48:25.440]People are more comfortable
- [00:48:26.600]having the piling underneath there,
- [00:48:28.270]and again, it goes back to soil conditions.
- [00:48:31.990]Yeah.
- [00:48:32.823]So yeah, I think I liked the GRS abutments.
- [00:48:39.650]I kind of had hoped that they would take off a little bit
- [00:48:42.630]in Nebraska just because they're pretty easy to build.
- [00:48:48.170]They have to be in the right place, of course, as you know.
- [00:48:51.120]So I was just curious,
- [00:48:56.368]some of them you did with the sheet pile for the wall.
- [00:48:59.420]Yes.
- [00:49:00.253]To help with scour,
- [00:49:01.410]and then the GRS abutment for the bridge loading basically.
- [00:49:06.431]I actually have 6,7 with GRS-IBS.
- [00:49:10.240]And when I first started out,
- [00:49:12.960]I was putting them on a 2-1.
- [00:49:14.840]First of all, for scour control
- [00:49:16.500]I was digging basically a curtain wall across the front,
- [00:49:19.680]dropping the fabric down, then putting rip rap on top of it
- [00:49:23.500]or shock rock.
- [00:49:25.460]And then stacking it on a 2-1 burrito wrapping up 2-1 slope
- [00:49:29.660]then face that was rip rap.
- [00:49:31.300]And one of the pictures that Mike had of my railcar bridges
- [00:49:34.490]was actually on the GRS-IBS abutments.
- [00:49:37.190]Okay, so are you mostly putting your railcar
- [00:49:39.960]on top of the GRS abutments?
- [00:49:41.487]Are you doing other things?
- [00:49:43.190]I've done other things,
- [00:49:44.620]I've partnered with Forest Products Lab,
- [00:49:47.140]they wanted him to put a wooden bridge on him
- [00:49:49.360]a couple of years ago.
- [00:49:50.280]We worked together and I put a wooden bridge
- [00:49:52.490]on GRS-IBS.
- [00:49:54.663]I put press brake tub girders actually on GRS-IBS.
- [00:50:00.670]Okay.
- [00:50:01.850]Yeah, we think, of course the press brake done by Valmont,
- [00:50:05.950]the galvanized built right in Nebraska
- [00:50:09.770]seemed kind of exciting for us.
- [00:50:11.410]I think it's exciting for a lot of people,
- [00:50:14.701]including me here.
- [00:50:16.137]Yeah, and the galvanized H-pile,
- [00:50:20.810]we get frustrated when we see some of these bridges,
- [00:50:24.368]especially the old timber pile bridges,
- [00:50:27.370]and some of the steel H-pile
- [00:50:29.160]where the piling are deteriorating,
- [00:50:31.170]you've got a perfectly good bridge
- [00:50:32.670]but your substructures going bad on you.
- [00:50:34.530]And I know you can do some repairs,
- [00:50:36.630]but those those types of things,
- [00:50:39.460]it seems like money well spent to do some galvanization.
- [00:50:44.270]That's really what got me started galvanizing
- [00:50:46.600]'cause I started coming back and doing repairs
- [00:50:48.690]on a bridge I built in 1995.
- [00:50:51.010]Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [00:50:52.655]I understand that.
- [00:50:54.110]I know we've got a lot of consultant
- [00:50:56.620]and I know we have county folks on
- [00:50:57.980]but we've also got consultants in Nebraska
- [00:51:00.870]that do a lot of work with the counties.
- [00:51:05.760]And I don't know if any of those guys have comments
- [00:51:08.540]or thoughts or maybe can pick out their favorite innovation
- [00:51:15.470]on the list to talk about.
- [00:51:17.040]And I know we can all grab one or two off the list
- [00:51:20.290]and study it down and say,
- [00:51:22.360]hey we don't like this one because...
- [00:51:24.860]But I'm sure we can all pick a couple off this list
- [00:51:28.500]and say, hey, this is something
- [00:51:30.270]that we think is a good thing.
- [00:51:33.390]So again, Mike and Brian, I appreciate you doing this.
- [00:51:37.340]I guess I'll shut up and listen to see
- [00:51:39.660]what others have to say.
- [00:51:42.440]Thanks again guys.
- [00:51:45.690]Thanks Mark.
- [00:51:48.360]I'm gonna keep talking
- [00:51:49.310]as long as nobody's asking questions,
- [00:51:50.620]but one of the concerns about
- [00:51:51.860]the vibratory H-piling drivers, how do you know bearing?
- [00:51:55.510]And what the counties have done
- [00:51:57.260]is they've adapted a drop hammer to the hydraulic excavator
- [00:52:01.781]to drop and do a test drop on that too.
- [00:52:05.780]So that's the solution to
- [00:52:07.540]how do you know the bearing on that?
- [00:52:10.728]And I did one of the GRS-IBS abutments entirely different,
- [00:52:15.510]hasn't been done any place else.
- [00:52:17.420]I stacked it on a one-to-one, which is a little difficult.
- [00:52:20.060]The guys had to drive pinch to the fabric
- [00:52:22.460]to move up to the different layers
- [00:52:24.710]and put some 2 by 12s in there as they split up.
- [00:52:28.310]And then we faced it,
- [00:52:29.400]we laid number 4 rebar on 2 foot centers
- [00:52:32.280]and faced it with roller compacted concrete.
- [00:52:35.070]And we placed the roller compacted concrete
- [00:52:37.040]with a vibratory driver on an excavator.
- [00:52:42.980]And it's working good,
- [00:52:43.920]it's about 6,8 years down the road.
- [00:52:47.470]It's got some cracks in it,
- [00:52:48.530]but that's kind of understandable
- [00:52:49.660]with that dense of a concrete.
- [00:52:54.760]So I'll take a turn here.
- [00:52:57.700]I am a big fan of the penetrating sealer
- [00:53:01.270]on the bridge decks.
- [00:53:03.290]I think even on pavement.
- [00:53:06.160]I mean, if you can preserve your concrete
- [00:53:08.300]and give it some resistance to salt,
- [00:53:11.270]I think the penetrating sealers are great
- [00:53:14.990]in a lot of different applications.
- [00:53:17.670]And then I'm also a fan of the galvanizing too.
- [00:53:20.640]I mean, talking about galvanizing the girders
- [00:53:24.230]as well as the piles, I think that's money well spent.
- [00:53:29.420]I'm interested that the H-pile, the vibratory H-pile,
- [00:53:34.880]have you guys from Nebraska seen piles driven that way here?
- [00:53:39.910]That seems pretty slick to me.
- [00:53:44.300]I'll just kind of open it up to anybody, so--
- [00:53:48.150]I know it's really common with sheet pile.
- [00:53:50.930]H-piling kind of depends on the bearing you need
- [00:53:53.020]and the type of soil that you've got.
- [00:53:55.150]So if you're doing bigger, longer bridges
- [00:53:56.873]then you need a lot of bearing per pile,
- [00:53:58.650]then I think there's a upper limit
- [00:54:00.750]to what you can do with the vibratory driving method.
- [00:54:04.890]But for smaller local system bridges,
- [00:54:08.970]that might make more sense.
- [00:54:11.740]I understand, thanks Kent.
- [00:54:15.300]Also Liesca posted in the chat,
- [00:54:18.460]she has a list of the approved products
- [00:54:21.220]for the concrete penetrating sealers.
- [00:54:23.980]I don't know if any of the soybean ones have made the list
- [00:54:26.490]but there's the approved list in the chat
- [00:54:29.620]if you're interested.
- [00:54:33.420]No, we don't have the soybeans
- [00:54:36.590]but yeah, I will love to be able just to get some
- [00:54:41.497]and be able to just to do, they think that we actually do
- [00:54:45.990]prior to the approval of the sealers.
- [00:54:48.630]And so I will be happy to be able just to,
- [00:54:52.830]if there's anybody interested later,
- [00:54:56.271]you will be able to, just me showing
- [00:54:58.300]how we do the appropriate for the sealers
- [00:55:03.107]and how they get into the state.
- [00:55:05.740]Right now we use them for concrete pavement.
- [00:55:11.670]They have been some on the bridge rails,
- [00:55:14.990]but no necessarily on all our bridge rails.
- [00:55:21.332]Thanks Liesca.
- [00:55:23.050]Yeah, Liesca, first of all, good hearing from you.
- [00:55:26.570]Yeah, I will forward you the soy-based concrete sealant,
- [00:55:32.360]it's called PoreShield.
- [00:55:33.720]And Brian just had a test applied on a stretch of his road.
- [00:55:40.870]It was developed at Purdue University.
- [00:55:44.000]And so, it's still relatively new,
- [00:55:46.540]but it's been approved by the Indiana DLT.
- [00:55:49.260]They've done quite a few demonstration projects with that.
- [00:55:54.700]I worked with the Iowa DOT to get it on their radar screen,
- [00:55:59.120]they tested it, they provided approval for it
- [00:56:02.850]in summer of 2020.
- [00:56:05.290]So I'll forward you kind of the information
- [00:56:08.070]from the Iowa DOT.
- [00:56:09.910]And then certainly, if there's more information
- [00:56:13.440]that I can provide to you as you examine it further,
- [00:56:17.830]I'm happy to provide that.
- [00:56:19.600]Oh, that will be great.
- [00:56:20.680]And yeah, looking forward for the information
- [00:56:23.680]and yeah, we can be able to just to test it as well.
- [00:56:26.410]So yeah, that will be great, thank you.
- [00:56:29.480]Great, thank you.
- [00:56:34.827]A few years back, we were looking at
- [00:56:37.880]kind of like system wide needs
- [00:56:39.830]for things like concrete sealers
- [00:56:41.580]or applicability of deck preservation methods on the system.
- [00:56:46.190]And we realized that we're missing
- [00:56:48.280]some key information on that.
- [00:56:49.560]We don't really have a data item
- [00:56:51.180]for the approach roadway surface type.
- [00:56:54.140]And of course the majority of bridges,
- [00:56:58.460]especially the smaller bridges on the local system
- [00:57:00.310]are on gravel roads.
- [00:57:02.300]And we have no way to know from the data
- [00:57:04.640]which bridges are on a gravel road and which are not.
- [00:57:08.250]Of course any bridge it's not on a gravel road
- [00:57:09.970]is going to be more likely to be subject
- [00:57:12.060]to DIC and chemicals.
- [00:57:14.060]And so different preservation methods are warranted
- [00:57:17.490]like concrete sealers,
- [00:57:19.680]perhaps on, especially on concrete bridge rails
- [00:57:21.790]where you don't have many choices
- [00:57:23.170]for treating that surface otherwise.
- [00:57:26.340]But just wanted to point out
- [00:57:28.980]that's something that we did ask for
- [00:57:30.690]in the new specifications for a bridge inspection standards
- [00:57:34.760]that we're anticipating from the FHWA.
- [00:57:37.960]We did request that they allow a place
- [00:57:41.680]for approach roadway surface type.
- [00:57:47.880]But we don't know what's in that,
- [00:57:48.890]what's going to be in the final rules yet.
- [00:57:53.760]Thanks for your presentation, it's really interesting stuff.
- [00:57:57.360]I know I've highlighted some limitations on it
- [00:57:58.747]and I do encourage you to take a look
- [00:58:00.240]at some of those things because I think it could help people
- [00:58:01.900]make better decisions about it,
- [00:58:03.970]which one of these methods work for them.
- [00:58:06.610]If you talk a little bit
- [00:58:07.700]about where they are and are not suitable,
- [00:58:09.950]so just some quick little one liner bullet point
- [00:58:13.410]about best application for this method or something
- [00:58:17.800]or warning about we don't even think of this here
- [00:58:21.320]but that would be one suggestion I'd have for.
- [00:58:25.960]But really interesting and a lot of good stuff to consider.
- [00:58:28.490]Yeah, and we did and thank you for that.
- [00:58:33.630]Yeah, I mean you've got kind of the high level applicable
- [00:58:37.510]on the right hand side, but then in the summary,
- [00:58:40.380]again, the goal was to provide a sentence or two
- [00:58:43.420]about when there are some restrictions.
- [00:58:45.810]And again, it's not going to be as exhaustive
- [00:58:48.640]as you would like, again, you're trying to sacrifice
- [00:58:52.910]every additional sentence you add,
- [00:58:54.900]you decrease the amount of,
- [00:58:56.520]that you make it less readable.
- [00:58:58.020]So that's kind of the rules, the dilemma,
- [00:59:01.540]but a lot of those concepts
- [00:59:03.670]we did include some of those limitations
- [00:59:07.760]but again, that's something we can always improve on,
- [00:59:11.410]but there is some of that in the summary information.
- [00:59:23.770]Anybody else have any questions for Mike or for Brian?
- [00:59:29.040]I think he's still on here, so.
- [00:59:31.360]Yeah, I'm still here.
- [00:59:32.910]He's still here.
- [00:59:33.890]I'm still here.
- [00:59:38.600]And again, I could speak
- [00:59:39.981]on most of these different types of methods.
- [00:59:44.520]You mentioned the substructure issues,
- [00:59:46.220]and we've had a lot of concrete decks,
- [00:59:51.320]steel or concrete slab designs
- [00:59:54.530]and wooden backhauls and wooden piling.
- [00:59:57.220]And we've started doing full concrete encasements on those
- [01:00:01.610]because of the failing of the piling.
- [01:00:04.300]They're a good structure except the piling.
- [01:00:08.430]Yeah.
- [01:00:12.180]You hear me? Hey everyone.
- [01:00:15.840]Hello, I just want to have a view
- [01:00:17.970]and just comment a couple of minutes here.
- [01:00:20.200]I looked at all this list you're talking about
- [01:00:24.210]and that's very good list,
- [01:00:26.130]actually we have like good experience with all of them.
- [01:00:30.920]The question I have really generally for Brian,
- [01:00:33.890]which is, Hey, Brian, been hearing about you
- [01:00:36.160]for all over the place, wherever I go and every state,
- [01:00:39.473]they're talking about mechanic county,
- [01:00:42.020]which is great for you.
- [01:00:45.249]So really the question I have, really all those saving
- [01:00:48.980]you talked about is really because it's done by your group,
- [01:00:53.240]is that correct?
- [01:00:54.073]So really if the county doesn't have good bridge crew,
- [01:00:59.730]that mean really gonna rely on a contractor,
- [01:01:02.880]et cetera, et cetera.
- [01:01:04.450]That savings will probably be eaten away.
- [01:01:10.770]If I'm standing, if I'm trying to deal
- [01:01:13.120]with my typical bridge contractors,
- [01:01:15.200]their overhead gets high.
- [01:01:17.150]But I've worked numerous times,
- [01:01:19.140]especially with the few of the railcars,
- [01:01:21.240]working with some of the local guys,
- [01:01:24.710]trying to get going in the business.
- [01:01:26.970]And you can have some real savings dealing
- [01:01:30.380]with crews like that.
- [01:01:32.320]They don't have the heavy overhead,
- [01:01:34.600]they don't have 4 or 5 cranes sitting in their yard
- [01:01:37.020]that they're trying to pay for and such.
- [01:01:39.270]So know the small contractors that are trying to get going
- [01:01:43.590]and trying to make a living,
- [01:01:45.550]you can have some real savings with them.
- [01:01:47.780]And I can point to several of the railcars
- [01:01:50.330]that I've worked directly with the small guys
- [01:01:53.160]to construct for me.
- [01:01:55.240]And it turned in very successful,
- [01:01:57.309]especially some of my repairs too.
- [01:01:59.850]Would you send those contractors our way,
- [01:02:02.130]if you don't mind? (laughs)
- [01:02:03.160]No, am fond of the work here. (laughs)
- [01:02:06.640]Okay, so I'm gonna mention one more thing
- [01:02:09.020]that's very important at least for me.
- [01:02:15.580]I want to mention that as great what you're doing
- [01:02:18.720]and everything, but really I want to make sure
- [01:02:21.063]that we are in compliance with FHWA,
- [01:02:25.330]meaning when you do railcars,
- [01:02:30.140]we have Marshall gum on all days,
- [01:02:32.890]those are hard to load rates, so to speak.
- [01:02:36.440]And we had to get rid of them
- [01:02:38.160]because we have no way to prove that FHWA
- [01:02:40.559]what is really the capacity of those?
- [01:02:45.260]So maybe they are great engineering by judgment
- [01:02:48.720]but FHWA doesn't like us to do that,
- [01:02:51.670]engineering judgment with regulations.
- [01:02:54.870]So everything you do is really based on engineering,
- [01:02:57.750]we have to prove it, make capacity
- [01:02:59.720]and when you do a load rate.
- [01:03:01.770]And we do require a load rating engineer to stamp
- [01:03:04.920]and you know that probably our load rating,
- [01:03:07.740]and that's really whether it is funded by state fund
- [01:03:11.350]or by county bound or private fund,
- [01:03:14.600]we still have to have the load rating stamped
- [01:03:20.897]by a professional engineer anyway.
- [01:03:24.100]So you'll want to make sure
- [01:03:26.690]that at least some of the stuff you do buy a new arm
- [01:03:30.260]which is a great ingenuity, I should say
- [01:03:32.980]but it needs to be engineering based.
- [01:03:36.580]So engineer can stamp it and provide calculations
- [01:03:40.470]to be in compliance with FHWA,
- [01:03:44.338]and that's really our problems because we got stuck
- [01:03:46.780]in Nebraska in a way.
- [01:03:48.730]We had spent a lot of money
- [01:03:49.563]because we were part of non-compliance
- [01:03:52.570]and we had to get rid of a lot of stuff.
- [01:03:54.840]Maybe they're good stuff
- [01:03:56.150]but really there wasn't up to the bar.
- [01:03:59.000]And I just want to make sure that we are on the same page
- [01:04:01.520]at least for the Nebraska work anyway,
- [01:04:03.970]I'm not sure what Iowa, 'cause I know I'm talking to Iowa,
- [01:04:06.460]the Jim Nelson, the Iowa everything.
- [01:04:09.320]So I just want to make sure
- [01:04:10.310]that we are on the same page here.
- [01:04:12.640]And by all means all the stuff you discuss, that'd be great
- [01:04:17.320]and we've been doing while encouraging,
- [01:04:19.360]we've been enlightened,
- [01:04:20.490]the GRS aburtment, the amenity car precast
- [01:04:24.337]the brake tub, actually the first one was the research
- [01:04:30.130]by the University of Nebraska,
- [01:04:31.560]by Dr. Azizi, Dehamer et cetera.
- [01:04:34.760]So that's what I want to mention,
- [01:04:37.210]but other than that, great work for you, hat off.
- [01:04:40.750]I wish all our county guys have good crew like you have.
- [01:04:45.860]Yeah, and we'll address that quick
- [01:04:47.390]because you're concerned about,
- [01:04:49.080]again being in compliance with FHWS bridge inspection.
- [01:04:54.900]And my assistant is actually,
- [01:04:58.000]is certified to do the load ratings
- [01:05:02.830]and he's been doing them.
- [01:05:04.580]But the real way we got through on the railcars
- [01:05:07.830]is with stress strain gauges.
- [01:05:09.800]And that's something that even the soybean associations,
- [01:05:12.820]they've actually offered to help work with us
- [01:05:15.130]to get the equipment to do it.
- [01:05:17.110]In our case, we had Iowa state come in
- [01:05:19.070]and do the stress strain gauges
- [01:05:21.750]to determine the stresses on these bridges
- [01:05:24.380]for the load rating purposes.
- [01:05:26.640]And we've done that with all the different designs.
- [01:05:28.680]Now we kind of limit what we buy for cars,
- [01:05:31.820]keeping the same design of car for all the time,
- [01:05:34.490]so we don't have issues.
- [01:05:36.410]But yes, we're definitely in compliance.
- [01:05:39.580]Actually, I've got two steel beam bridges
- [01:05:41.703]that they say they need additional data on right now
- [01:05:44.910]but it's still old steel beam center
- [01:05:47.770]so it's not a railcars right now.
- [01:05:51.260]And so, yes we do have to be in compliance
- [01:05:56.430]with FHWA requirements.
- [01:05:59.070]I'm certified for bridge inspections,
- [01:06:01.120]my assistant is certified for bridge inspections,
- [01:06:04.210]but he's also trained and certified
- [01:06:07.030]for doing the load ratings on them too.
- [01:06:12.460]Oh, that's a great way to do it.
- [01:06:14.080]No, I'm not saying here,
- [01:06:15.300]but I'm saying at least in Nebraska, everything we like,
- [01:06:19.330]our county guys we encourage to do is anything
- [01:06:24.290]when they repair, when they do something which is great
- [01:06:26.540]and then is gonna be traceable.
- [01:06:29.400]So we can produce document,
- [01:06:33.510]updated judge locating somebody sheet.
- [01:06:36.940]So to reflect the condition of the bridge,
- [01:06:39.960]whether five, six, seven
- [01:06:41.280]whatever you want to call it, call it.
- [01:06:43.270]To reflect on this, whether you wanna,
- [01:06:45.990]And that's great, that's all am talking about.
- [01:06:51.726]And it's continually moving right now in Iowa,
- [01:06:55.140]they're talking about allowing 90,000 pounds semis
- [01:06:57.950]on our roads in year around.
- [01:07:00.970]And so that means we would have to rerate
- [01:07:04.530]all of our bridges again.
- [01:07:07.030]And so yes, that's always a concern.
- [01:07:10.380]And when they came in with special haul vehicles
- [01:07:14.370]and made those legal, then that required us to go back
- [01:07:18.970]and do analysis on our bridges again.
- [01:07:21.090]That's actually where I've got two of them right now
- [01:07:22.920]that aren't in compliance but those are steel beam bridges.
- [01:07:29.010]All right, great.
- [01:07:30.890]Well, thanks, Mike, Brian,
- [01:07:33.440]really appreciate your time
- [01:07:34.740]and I guess the work that your coalition is doing,
- [01:07:40.200]anything we can do to raise awareness
- [01:07:42.280]of the issues that we have, I think is a good thing.
- [01:07:45.480]So I guess all of this knowledge is a good thing as well.
- [01:07:50.080]So thanks for your time.
- [01:07:51.630]Thanks to the INDOT bridge people for being here as well.
- [01:07:56.020]I think they help give us good perspective
- [01:07:57.960]on some of these too.
- [01:08:00.920]If somebody would like can email me
- [01:08:04.810]and I'd send some of this information,
- [01:08:06.560]particularly like the study that came out of Kansas.
- [01:08:10.800]Ron Sites, who I think was the engineer
- [01:08:13.210]that actually put that together
- [01:08:16.170]on the barrier rail and the bridges.
- [01:08:19.510]And that study that Kansas did too,
- [01:08:23.460]I would gladly send out because the mentalities out there,
- [01:08:27.060]we can't afford all these bridges,
- [01:08:28.300]we just have to close them down.
- [01:08:30.030]And that doesn't work in the real world
- [01:08:33.340]and talk to my brother in South Dakota
- [01:08:35.300]where he's got problems on the Cape Haw river
- [01:08:37.350]'cause they're down to about one bridge
- [01:08:38.550]in that part of the county across it.
- [01:08:43.070]Yeah, I think Brian,
- [01:08:44.610]you probably have my email address somewhere.
- [01:08:47.370]Anything that you can send us,
- [01:08:48.730]we'll make sure that we have available for everybody.
- [01:08:51.350]Also, like Mike said, soytransportation.org,
- [01:08:55.020]you can get a look at the full report
- [01:08:57.200]which has a lot more information.
- [01:08:59.120]We'll also post that report in our resource library,
- [01:09:02.850]along with this recording.
- [01:09:04.970]So Mike, any last words?
- [01:09:10.190]You're on mute sir.
- [01:09:15.780]Mike, we can't hear you.
- [01:09:19.710]There you go.
- [01:09:21.250]Well, thanks again, simply thank you for hosting us,
- [01:09:24.220]thank you for everything that you do
- [01:09:25.420]and look forward to keeping in touch
- [01:09:26.860]and being of service in any way possible.
- [01:09:29.300]You bet, thanks everybody, have a good day.
- [01:09:32.440]You too. You too.
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