Confirmation

摘要

The Aug. 1 collapse of the I-35W bridge brought back memories of a parallel experience. I am county engineer of Montgomery County, Ohio (Dayton), and my office has jurisdiction of 554 bridges. About 10 years ago I had a potential problem with the Siebenthaler Bridge, a 70-year-old, 265-ft-long truss bridge. We increased our inspections from annually to monthly. We then felt we needed more sophisticated inspection and analysis than our office could offer. Burgess and Niple of Columbus, Ohio, was retained. Its crew physically inspected each member and joint of the bridge and made a detailed analysis of the bridge's strength. It was expensive, but in hindsight it was worthwhile.