Midwest Bridge Working Group Spring 2007 Meeting Summary - 6/6/07

The Midwest Bridge Working Group met on Tuesday May 15, 2007, at the Holiday Inn Milwaukee City Centre hotel in Milwaukee, WI. The following day, meeting attendees were taken to the Marquette Interchange; a large interstate construction project in downtown Milwaukee. That trip was hosted by the Wisconsin DOT. An agenda for the May 15 session is provided on the Meetings page, and a breakdown of attendees is below.

Regular Session - May 15, 2007
A total of 10 presentations were made. The presenters included two speakers from the Bridge Department of Whatcom County, WA (representing the Northwest Bridge Working Group). There were two presenters from universities: Dr. Richard Finno from Northwestern University and Dr. Brent Phares from Iowa State University. Three speakers were from DOTs: Steve Varnedoe from the North Carolina DOT, Finn Hubbard from WisDOT and Peter Weykamp from the New York State DOT. The other four speakers were equipment/material suppliers and consulting engineers. Carl Callahan provided an impromptu presentation on the MoDOT "Safe and Sound" bridge maintenance contract prior to the start of the meeting.

The meeting was both videotaped and transmitted over the Internet for online viewing. Northwestern University's ITI personnel ably managed the internet broadcast.

The presentations were very good and the audience enjoyed the proceedings. The DOT meeting attendees were highly laudatory of the meeting.

Field Trip to the Marquette Interchange - May 16, 2007
About 50 attendees of the meeting came on the field trip hosted by WisDOT, who provided transportation to the reconstruction site. WisDOT officials provided an overview of the project and a tour of the site office. Officials then reviewed the project using a table-top model. The project manager made a PowerPoint presentation about the history and special features of the project and fielded many questions following the presentation.

Meeting Attendance Data
Total Attendees: 92 (incl. NWU/ITI and UK/KTC personnel)
DOTs: 15 (57 attendees)
FHWA: 3
US Army Corps of Engineers: 1
Other transportation agencies: 2 (4 attendees)
Universities represented: 3 (9 attendees)
The balance of the attenders were from consulting firms and private industry.

Working Group participants gather to go on a field trip to the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee, WI, Spring 2007 meeting.

Professor Richard Finno of Northwestern University speaks at the Spring 2007 meeting in Milwaukee, WI.