National Concrete Bridge Council Meets with Federal Highway Administration

The National Concrete Bridge Council (NCBC) is a council of allied industry organizations, of which NRMCA is a member, that is dedicated to promote quality in concrete bridge construction; gather and disseminate information on design, construction, and condition of concrete bridges; establish communication with federal and state departments of transportation, city and county public works departments, and consulting engineers; and provide information on behalf of the concrete industries to codes and standards groups.

Twice a year representatives from NCBC meet with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to discuss a range of concrete bridge related topics consisting of technology deployment, technical assistance, research activities and the long-term bridge program. NRMCA Senior Director, Pavement Structures Brian Killingsworth attends these meetings on behalf of the ready mix industry to highlight our various concrete certification programs, research initiatives and training efforts.

Earlier this month, the NCBC-FHWA joint meeting was held at the PCA offices in Skokie, IL. Highlights at this meeting included a discussion regarding the possibility of hosting a Web site that identifies training programs from the FHWA, the National Highway Institute (NHI), and NCBC; organizations specifically related to concrete bridge structures which would promote more efficient technology deployment. In addition, attendees held a brainstorming session led by Sue Lane of the FHWA focused on identifying ideas for collaboration between industry partners and the FHWA’s long-term bridge program. One area that was identified for collaboration was to develop a timeline of when concrete bridge technology and design methods have changed over the years. With this information the FHWA can develop a database that can assist with the identification of technology and methods that have had a significant impact on concrete bridge performance and when they occurred.