A desired project of the NCHRP - National Cooperative Highway Research Program - within the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is meeting a need to protect America's bridges from intentional or accidental explosions. The impacts of these loads on buildings and military structures have been studied for many years, but design for resistance to explosive effects is a new area for highway bridge engineers. Presumably there will be some discussion of this project at the January 9-13 TRB meeting in Washington, DC. OBJECTIVE The objective of this 36-month NCHRP project (950,000 dollars funding) is to develop design guidance for improving the structural performance and resistance to explosive effects of 1) new and 2) existing bridges. Proposals were due by Nov 1. Much research and development has been done on the effectiveness of seismic strengthening details for buildings and bridges (steel and composites solutions), it has been suggested that bridge details, used in construction or as a retrofit to resist seismic and other extreme event loads, also may serve to resist explosions and provide a predictable level of protection for such structures.
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