(Press-News.org) Montreal, April 30, 2012 – What if there was a way to vastly improve the safety, durability and sustainability of bridges across North America without increasing spending? This was the question Saleh Abu Dabous set out to answer when he began his PhD at Concordia. "I was looking for an applied way to do research — something that would have an impact on society and improve the current situation," he remembers.
In a paper published in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, Abu Dabous and his thesis supervisor Sabah Alkass, professor of in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, came up with a new decision-making approach that could revolutionize how cities manage bridge infrastructure.
"Most bridges in North America are in really bad shape," says Alkass. "We talked to different municipalities, and the reason is that they just don´t have funds. The budget is so limited that they normally do corrective maintenance. But in the long run, although it requires more planning, it´s actually cheaper and more effective to avoid problems now rather than fix them later."
The new decision-making method developed by Abu Dabous and Alkass prioritizes preventive maintenance. Rather than try to repair an entire network of bridges and overpasses all at once — which in large cities could mean up to five thousand structures — the method helps decision makers choose which bridges to focus on by assessing several factors. Bridges that get a lot of traffic, have an inefficient drainage system, are at seismic risk and are in poor condition would be at the top of the list. The method takes into account the fact that some criteria are more important than others: a bridge that is in poor condition would be prioritized over one that has an inefficient drainage system.
After assessing which bridges require the most attention, the next issue facing decision makers is whether to rebuild the bridge, repair it or increase maintenance.
With three different rehabilitation options — each with its own price tag — and an entire network of bridges, figuring out which bridges to rebuild and which to repair while staying within the budget is a challenge. The paper calculates that there are over three billion rehabilitation possibilities when considering just 20 bridges.
Abu Dabous and Alkass had experts choose the best option — rebuilding, repairing, or maintenance — for each bridge in their sample and then entered the information into a computer program that simulated all the different possibilities and calculated the cost of each. "This simulation process has never before been applied to making decisions on maintenance strategies for bridges," says Abu Dabous. It is a powerful tool that can incorporate both expert opinion and a systematic assessment of bridges to identify the best strategy within a limited budget.
The method can also take into account other factors in the decision making process that previously weren´t given as much weight. "We need to think about the sustainability of our infrastructure for future generations," says Abu Dabous. "Beyond the cost are factors such as safety, environmental impact and the impact on the users of the bridge."
The new decision-making method has already caught the eye of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering, which selected the article for the honorable mention in the Stephen G. Revay Award competition for best paper in construction engineering and management. Abu Dabous and Alkass hope that the award will encourage Transport Canada to provide more data, which could then be used to build a publicly available web-based version of the program, giving cities access to this new decision making method.
INFORMATION:
Partners in Research: This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and supported by the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University.
Related Links:
Cited Study
Dr. Sabah Alkass
Concordia´s Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
Media contact:
Cléa Desjardins
Senior Advisor, External Communications
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Mobile: 514-909-2999
Email: clea.desjardins@concordia.ca
Twitter: twitter.com/CleaDesjardins
Concordia news: www.concordia.ca/now
END
PHILADELPHIA – Two drugs commonly used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) yield similar improvements in vision for patients receiving treatments on a monthly or as-needed basis, according to a study from researchers at the Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and Biostatistics (CPOB) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The year-two results of the Comparison of AMD Treatment Trials (CATT) support the findings from the first year of the study that evaluated the effects of Avastin ® (bevacizumab) - the off-label drug most frequently ...
Hans Vogel, a professor in the biological sciences department, is the guest editor of a special issue of the journal Biochemistry and Cell Biology that focuses on lactoferrin, an important iron-binding protein with many health benefits.
"Some people describe this protein as the 'Swiss army knife' of the human host defense system," says Vogel. "We now know that lactoferrin has many functions in innate immunity and that it plays a role in protecting us from bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoal infections. It can even protect us from some forms of cancer."
Lactoferrin—which ...
There was no change in concentrations of chloride, dissolved solids, or nitrate in groundwater for more than 50 percent of well networks sampled in a new analysis by the USGS that compared samples from 1988-2000 to samples from 2001-2010. For those networks that did have a change, seven times more networks saw increases as opposed to decreases.
The analysis was done by the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) to determine if concentrations of these constituents have increased or decreased significantly from the 1990's to the early 2000's nationwide. ...
It's very difficult to kick a star out of the galaxy.
In fact, the primary mechanism that astronomers have come up with that can give a star the two-million-plus mile-per-hour kick it takes requires a close encounter with the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core.
So far astronomers have found 16 of these "hypervelocity" stars. Although they are traveling fast enough to eventually escape the galaxy's gravitational grasp, they have been discovered while they are still inside the galaxy.
Now, Vanderbilt astronomers report in the May issue of the Astronomical ...
Robert Stanek, bestselling author of over 150 published books, has a passion to help other independently published authors reach their goals. Stanek lives in Washington State, but his reach is international via the internet. Over the past 11 years he has developed several venues to help promote and market indie authors giving them more online exposure and visibility. He works diligently to offer ways in which to showcase new authors and books. One example is his blog readindies.blogspot.com (http://readindies.blogspot.com/).
Stanek started his writing career as a technical ...
ThePetCrib.com (http://www.thepetcrib.com/), a leading online store for upscale dog products and cat products announced today they will begin promotion one pet product a month as a special way to highlight their vendors products. The pet product of the month promotion will begin in May of 2012.
"We really work hard to represent vendors and pet products that are high quality and unique," said Bryan Cochran, owner of ThePetCrib.com. "The pet products we sell represent some of the best in the pet products industry. This is an opportunity for us to showcase ...
"Love thy neighbor" is preached from many a pulpit. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the highly religious are less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists, agnostics and less religious people.
In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were, according to the findings which are published in the July issue of the journal Social Psychological ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. – As the United States grapples with health care reform, much attention has focused on the importance of preventative health care. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has developed a system that could help public health care organizations determine the best method of allocating resources by prioritizing health risk factors and conditions – in some cases before these conditions become major health problems.
"Every state, county and community has different trends and needs in public health," said Eduardo Simoes, chair of the Department of Health ...
Folsom fitness expert and owner of Superwomen Boot Camp (SWBC), Val Fujii is proud to announce that he has added a 5pm class to the Folsom SWBC afternoon lineup.
In addition, the days for afternoon classes have changed effective this week. Afternoon classes are now held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 4pm, 5pm and 6pm. These classes are in addition to the boot camp's morning offerings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6am and 7am.
According to Fujii, Superwomen Boot Camp is not your typical 'hard core' boot camp - no one is going to yell in your face or ...
The problem with clutter is, well, the clutter. Being unable to part with things can prolong some spring cleanings into a summer project. And nobody wants to be stuck inside decluttering once the weather gets nice.
Certified Professional Organizer Wendy Arundel, owner and manager of The Mudroom, a Wellesley-based company serving Greater Boston, suggests a more practical, less emotional approach to a spring cleaning/decluttering.
âEURœYour focus really needs to be on how decluttering your space will improve your life and your living environment. You might even want ...
