Tomorrow

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Marc Maguire’s data collection equipment connected to a
decommissioned bridge.
“Jack
of All
Trades”
Marc
Maguire
Marc Maguire
6 UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY I COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Marc Maguire knew that he liked math
and science at an early age and channeled
his skills toward becoming an
engineer. The Nebraska native is now an
associate professor in Utah State University’s
Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and, after only
having been here for one year, is making
his mark in the structural engineering
industry.
The self-professed “jack of all
trades” has a wide variety of projects
in his care that range from measuring
replaced bridge strength to developing
methodology for engineers to predict
cracking and deflections for concrete
panels. Dr. Maguire thinks his broad
interests are complementary and benefit
each project with which he’s involved.
“I consider myself a ‘jack of all
trades’ in the engineering world,” he
said. “I feel that my variety of experiences
will benefit the organizations I
work with as well as my graduate students
by teaching them a wide variety of
problem-solving skills.”
Dr. Maguire is currently working
on five major projects in addition to his
teaching duties. Working with fellow
USU Civil Engineering professors Paul
Barr and Marv Halling, Dr. Maguire
is testing replaced Utah Department
of Transportation (UDOT) bridges in
the lab to see just how weak they really
are. Surprisingly, lab results show that
the structures are not as weak as their
appearances might relay and that full
replacement may not be necessary.
Instead, potentially only riding surface
issues may have to be considered.
“Qualifying deterioration will give
UDOT an idea about similar bridges
in similar shape,” he said. “The goal of
our research is to provide UDOT with
in place ‘load and dynamic testing’
techniques and will save them money.”
Much of the work centers on developing
materials and techniques that
ultimately save money by using better
resources and designs.
Dr. Maguire has a second project
with UDOT that involves developing
repair concrete for potholes and
delamination. The challenge of the
research is dealing with two different
time-dependent properties, shrinkage
and creep. Current repairs tend to be
short-term fixes so again, the goal is
to provide UDOT with a cost-saving
solution that could translate to more
available UDOT services.
To the east, Dr. Maguire is helping