Building Better Bridges

Audio

10/26/2007

Oct. 26, 2007

Building Better Bridges

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Engineers have been building bridges for hundreds of years. But are better designs, techniques, and materials available today? This month, Minnesota's Department of Transportation picked a design for the new Interstate 35W Bridge, to replace the one that collapsed nearly three months ago. In this segment, Ira and guests talk about what it takes to build high-performance structures. We'll take a look at the winning design and talk with engineers about how they're making bridges safer. We'll also get an update on the investigation into what caused the August 1st bridge collapse.

Produced by Karin Vergoth

Guests

Henry Petroski
Author, "The
Toothpick: Technology and Culture" (Knopf, 2007), "To
Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design" (1985)

Aleksandar S. Vesic (veh-SIK) Professor, Civil
Engineering

Professor, History

Andrew Hermann
District 1 Director

American Society of Civil Engineers

Managing Partner

Hardesty & Hanover

New York, New York
Taichiro Okazaki
Assistant Professor

Department of Civil Engineering

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota
Kristine Edwards
Bridge Project Coordinator, Tappan Zee Bridge Project
Former Bridge Management Engineer, Lower Hudson Valley

New York State Department of Transportation

Tarrytown, New York

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