When most people think of climate change, they think of rising sea levels and more intense heat waves.
When most people think of climate change, they think of rising sea levels and more intense heat waves. Engineers like Colorado State University’s Hussam Mahmoud think of bridges.
The associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is studying the toll climate change may take on aging U.S. infrastructure, which includes over 600,000 bridges. Now, he is co-author of a new study linking the potential impacts of climate change with the structural integrity of thousands of bridges transecting America’s highways and towns. Mahmoud’s analysis demonstrates a need to rethink the nation’s priority order of bridge repair, as climate change looms and infrastructure funding remains limited.
The research is published Oct. 23 in PLOS ONE, and its lead author is Susan Palu, who recently graduated from CSU with a master’s degree in civil engineering.
Mahmoud and Palu focused their analysis on about 80,000 “simply supported steel girder bridges,” a design common since World War II that consists of longitudinal beams spanning two piers. These bridges suffer frequently from expansion joints clogging with debris and require regular maintenance to clean the joints. Expansion joints connect bridge spans and allow the structure to expand and contract as the air heats or cools.
Read more at Colorado State University
Image: A steel girder bridge representative of the close to 80,000 Hussam Mahmoud's team studied in their analysis of how climate change is impacting bridge infrastructure. (Credit: Hussam Mahmoud/Colorado State University)
