In an effort to improve the methods used to protect bridge piers from collisions, researchers have rammed a barge into two bridge piers a total of 15 times. The $l-million research project—conducted by a team led by Gary Consolazio, Ph.D., m.asce, an associate professor of structural engineering at the University of Florida, and funded by the Florida Department of Transportation—made use of two bridge piers abandoned when the St. George Island Bridge, in Florida's Apalachicola Bay, was replaced by the Bryant Grady Patton Bridge. A parallel study on the geotechnical aspects of the collisions was conducted by Paul Bullock, a former professor of geotechnical engineering at the University of Florida, and Michael McVay, currently a professor of geotechnical engineering there.
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