The Federal Highway Administration is turning to risk-based, data-driven ways of evaluating and rating bridges. Shay Burrows, team leader for structures safety and management for the FHWA, said that the agency is replacing traditional sufficiency rating numbers with simpler terms such as “good,” “fair,” and “poor” in describing bridges.  Speaking to attendees of the International Bridge Conference last month, he noted the recently issued “Refined Analysis in Bridge Design and Evaluation” manual from the FHWA, which provides guidelines for engineers to use “refined” analysis in modeling bridges.

The manual states: “Current … Bridge Design Specifications feature a reliability-based approach to bridge design…and limit state design with conservatism built in to envelope the limits of applicability and consider all the relevant parameters. Conservatism always adds unnecessary cost, which may have serious implications for owner-agencies with limited budgets.”  Moreover, the manual states that “designers …focus on developing and using complex automated calculation tools to execute the necessary code checks rather than performing meaningful structural modeling to better understand behavior and address the limit states that are being evaluated. This often hides the controlling factors and hinders the development of new bridge innovations in general. A properly and efficiently executed refined analysis can provide substantially better information about the state of stress in a bridge and allow for more cost-effective and reliable design.” [Read more…]

On May 19^th, 2015 legislation was introduced in the Assembly which would, for the first time, vest specified New York City departments, authorities and other entities with authority to utilize design build as a project delivery system. (See A7590 Assemblyman Benedetto.)  Specifically, the bill authorizes the use of design build, by the New York City Department of Design and Construction, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the New York City Department of Parks and Authority and the New York City School Construction Authority.

Pursuant to current law construction undertaken by the aforementioned municipal entities must utilize a design-bid-build construction methodology.  In the absence of express quality assurance safeguards as detailed below, NYSSPE opposes A7590.

Design-build is a project delivery system whereby a single entity is contractually responsible for both the design and construction of the project.  It differs from the design-bid-build, which entails the production of a set of plans and specifications, which are offered for bid.  Proponents of traditional design-bid-build argue that the interests of the owner are better protected using the design-bid-build model which emphasizes the role of the design professional as the owner’s expert.  Supporters of design-build cite savings attributable to a faster construction timetable and the ability to provide for one-stop shopping. [Read more…]