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the home page, of all who have taken the challenge.The website also offers money-saving gas tips in Englishand Spanish, related resources, and mythbusters—objective information that contradicts popularmisconceptions.TR NEWS 264 SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2009A screen from the CD-ROM developed by NewJersey DOT and ParsonsBrinckerhoff depictsoptions and outcomesfor work-to-store travelunder smart growthand sprawl; thedemonstration illustratesthe complex relationshipsbetween land use andtransportation.Your Community—Smart Growth Versus Suburban SprawlNew Jersey DOT and Parsons Brinckerhoff developedthe interactive CD-ROM demonstration, YourCommunity—Smart Growth Versus SuburbanSprawl, to support the agency’s educational efforts tointegrate transportation and land use. Part of NewJersey DOT’s Long-Range Plan 2030 outreach program,the demonstration consists of a series of tripsthrough two hypothetical communities. One communityreflects smart growthapproaches, with integratedland use and a multimodaltransportation system; theother reflects suburbansprawl, with isolated landuses that require travel by privateautomobile.Trips to school, work, andother destinations are showngraphically, with a summaryof miles traveled by automobile,transit, or walking, plusa comparison of time spentfor each commute. Points areawarded for efficiency and qualitative health andenvironmental benefits. The interactive programdemonstrates the potential environmental, health,convenience, and time advantages of smart growth,educating people to make choices that reduce theircarbon footprint.The project team included James B. Lewis andDanielle Graves, New Jersey DOT; Jerome Lutin, formerlyof New Jersey Transit; and Pamela M. Lebeauxand Marc Steuben, Parsons Brinckerhoff.BWC and Climate Change:Making the ConnectionThe Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC) designationis the national emblem representing outstandingcommuter benefits. Millions of commuterswho work at BWC-designated worksites leave theircars at home, easing congestion and air pollutionand reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.The interactive program, BWC and ClimateChange: Making the Connection, assembled by IanTodreas of ERG, Boston, Massachusetts, aims to helpemployers make and broadcast the connectionbetween transportation demand managementThe Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC)campaign shows employers how commuter benefitscan play a significant role in mitigating some of thecauses of climate change. Ian Todreas, ERG, Boston,Massachusetts, provided a review of the BWCwebsite and its features at the TRB 2009 AnnualMeeting.(TDM) and climate change. Users leverage newopportunities to position BWC—and more generally,commuter benefits—as a near-term, cost-effectivesolution to climate change.The website features national and state-specificinformation about climate change; state-specificinformation on climate and TDM policies, players,and funding sources; local, state, regional, andnational climate and transportation organizations;and funding sources that might be available to supportTDM as a climate change solution. The websitecontains messages and talking points on how to promotelocal and regional BWC programs as a climatefriendlyTDM solutions and how the climate benefitsof BWC compare with those from other transportationstrategies. The website also has links to tools tomeasure the impact of climate change strategies.What’s on Tap for 2010The contest to be featured at the TRB 89th AnnualMeeting, January 10–14, 2010, focuses on communicatingabout issues related to providing and operatingpublic transportation. The purpose is to tacklethe challenges of communicating the role of transitin the larger transportation system, as well as uniquetechnical issues such as transit operations and maintenance,costs and financing, and transit projectdelivery, including the Federal Transit Admini -stration’s complex New Starts process. The entriesshould help agencies remove the mystery from publictransit for everyone from elected officials to thetraveling public.26
RESEARCHPAYS OFFService Life ModelingSelecting Repair and Rehabilitation Optionsfor Bridge StructuresALI AKBAR SOHANGHPURWALA AND IVAN R. LASASohanghpurwala is President,CONCORR, Inc.,Sterling, Virginia; andLasa is Corrosion Mitigationand RehabilitationTechnologist, CorrosionResearch Laboratory,Florida Department ofTransportation,Gainesville.View of one of the examinedbridges on I-95 nearBangor, Maine, showingcracking caused by reinforcementcorrosion. Conditionevaluation includeda delamination survey,cover depth measurements,chloride ion contentanalysis, andpetrographic analysis.Evaluating the corrosion condition of areinforced concrete structure is essentialin developing a strategy for repair andrehabilitation after corrosion-induceddamage. Several destructive and nondestructive testmethods and techniques are available to ascertainthe corrosion condition of the reinforcement in portionsthat do not yet show concrete damage. Most ofthese techniques, however, require significantresources to implement and then additionalresources to interpret the data and make the decisionsabout repair and rehabilitation.The National Cooperative Highway Research Program(NCHRP) therefore initiated a project todevelop a protocol for evaluating the condition ofbridge superstructure elements, for estimating theremaining service life, and for identifying the optionsfor mitigating the corrosion. The project findings,published in 2006 in NCHRP Report 558, Manual onService Life of Corrosion-Damaged Reinforced ConcreteBridge Superstructure Elements, produced a conditionsurvey protocol, a model for remaining servicelife, and a susceptibility index to designate the likelihoodof corrosion.ProblemThe National Bridge Inventory database, maintainedby the Federal Highway Administration, contained atotal of 587,964 bridges as of 2002. The average ageof the bridge structures in the database is 40 years;41 percent of the bridges are at least 40 years old.The condition of the nation’s aging highwaybridge infrastructure has gained significant attentionin the past two decades. Several independent evaluationsof the condition of the nation’s infrastructurehave used the ratings in the database. These studiesascertained that 14 percent of the bridges were ratedstructurally deficient and that the primary cause ofthe deficiency was corrosion of the reinforcing steel.For the 20-year period from 1999 to 2019, the estimatedcost of maintaining the nation’s bridges is $5.8billion per year, and the estimated cost of improvingthe same bridges and eliminating their deficiencies is$10.6 billion.To address deterioration from corrosion, a bridgeowner must decide whether to maintain, repair, orreplace the structure, considering its present conditionand its expected condition. The owner also mustidentify the materials and methods that are mostappropriate to the task. Because of the lack of standarddecision-making processes, most owners havemade these complex decisions by relying on localexperience and expertise. These decision-makingprocesses often have resulted in inefficient, costly,nonstandard, and nonoptimal solutions.A protocol capable of determining the optimalcourse of action—maintenance, repair, or replacement—andof assisting in the selection of the bestmaterials and methodology was urgently needed.SolutionDetermining the optimal course of action requiresinformation about the present condition of the structureand its expected deterioration. The present conditiondetermines the quantity and the type of repairsnecessary. The owner can use the expected futuredeterioration to determine the efficacy of alternativerepairs and to assist in selecting a repair-and-TR NEWS 264 SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 200927
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