Although Advanced Waterfront Technologies is primarily focused on marine and marina related products, we like to keep up on exciting applications of composite technology in other areas as well.  Especially when it is an application that one of our principals works with, namely Harbor Technologies.  The HC Bridge company has selected Harbor Technologies to build the composites components for several bridges, due to their composites expertise.  Take a look at the picture of the engineer standing under the railroad bridge.  Talk about standing behind your designs, standing under in this case requires even more confidence.

Also, Composite Manufacturing magazine had this interesting interview with the inventor and designer of this composite bridge design.

The HC Bridge Interview

One of the fantastic aspects of this special bridge design is that the composite components are very very lightweight.  In any application where there are issues relating to transporting bridge components this can be a deal maker technology.  And, even once the much more limited amount of concrete is installed, the bridge has a much lower dead load, so you'll realize more capacity. 

As the mind wanders, one wonders, if I had an island project, will this technology facilitate logistics ?  Also, could I land one end of my bridge or dock on the island, and then have a 70' span to piles to make my project more environmentally appealing ?   I'm not sure I know the answers to these sorts of questions directly, but we can find out.  Although our main mission isn't bridges, if you have a special application for this special technology please let us know, since we always love to help out a company we represent, in this case Harbor Technologies, whose marine piles we do represent directly.

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New Army Corps Policy Forces Project Designers to Consider Rising Seas

Here is an interesting article.  Although we may not know what it means from a practical standpoint initially, it could have far reaching consequences. 

Excerpt:

"The Army Corps of Engineers must consider the effects of climate change as it draws up plans for flood control, navigation and other water projects under a new agency policy."

...

"Now the Army Corps must follow three minimum guidelines: estimate the effect of historic sea level rise, asses the impact from faster rising seas projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and consider a worst case scenario based on criticism that the IPCC has actually underestimated how quickly glaciers are disintegrating."

From the articles below:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-11/army-corps-engineers-required-must-consider-climate-change-future-projects

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/11/11greenwire-new-army-corps-policy-forces-project-designers-7288.html