SSSBA Addresses the Needs of County Engineers

In the photo above, county engineer Brian Keierleber (far left) leads a bridge tour during an SSSBA sponsored workshop in Buchanan County, Iowa. The SSSBA’s objective is to provide educational information to county bridge engineers on to solve bridge design and construction challenges.

In a previous article, it was announced that the Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA) completed it semiannual meeting last week in Denver, CO. Ten county engineers from across the country participated, the largest turnout to date for this sector of bridge owners.

The county engineers provided valuable insight on challenges, concerns and suggestions for how the short span steel bridge industry can provide solutions and support to improve our nations local bridges.

The county engineers in attendance were from the following states:

• Ohio
• Iowa
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Illinois
• Oregon
• Michigan

Counties Own 40% of Nations Bridges

According to the National Association of County Engineers, local roads account for 75 percent of the nation’s highways and roads (about 2.93 million miles).

Counties manage about 1.74 million miles of those roads, while cities and townships oversee another 1.19 million miles.

Counties also own 219,000 bridges (40 percent of the nation’s bridges) and operate one-third of the nation’s transit systems.

The national Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program (HBRRP) sufficiency ratings indicate that 31.9 percent of county bridges are considered structurally deficient and 11.5 percent functionally obsolete for a total of 43.4 percent in need of replacement or rehabilitation.

SSSBA member Guy Nelson, Valmont Industries, provides insight on a recent bridge installation in Barron County, Wisconsin.

Tools and Resources to Address County Needs

The SSSBA dedicated a portion of its general meeting to gathering information from county engineers on the issues of concern they are experiencing. The most common issues mentioned included the need for:

• Steel bridge design tools
• Continuous information flow regarding government-funded infrastructure programs
• Grant writing aids
• Continuous education opportunities for steel bridge design

In the near future, the SSSBA plans to develop additional tools and resources to address these concerns.

SSSBA is Here to Help

The SSSBA is a group of bridge and buried soil steel structure industry leaders who have joined together to provide educational information on the design and construction of short span steel bridges in installations up to 140 feet in length.

SSSBA’s objective is to provide essential information to bridge and highway professionals on the varied and innovative steel solutions available to solve their short span bridge design and construction challenges.

The SSSBA currently provides:

• Education (free webinars, workshops, forums, conferences)
• Technical Resources (standards, guidelines, best practices)
• Case Studies
• Simple Design Tools (eSPAN140, a free web-based design tool that provides preliminary short span steel bridge designs in less than five minutes)
• Project Assistance
• Industry Contacts/Providers
• Innovative and Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) Options

For more information or to join the SSSBA, contact Dustin Young at dyoung@steel.org.