This month’s edition of Civil Engineering Magazine highlights the world’s first accelerated testing facility for full-scale bridges: the Bridge Evaluation and Accelerated Structural Testing Lab (BEAST).

The BEAST was designed by a team of Rutgers engineers and other bridge experts, with assistance from Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA). ARA constructed some of the massive components of the BEAST, especially a set of parallel steel I beams 120 ft long by 7 ft deep, at its plant in Randolph, VT. DuBois & King supported ARA with civil/site design, permitting, and structural engineering services including design of concrete abutments and foundation design for the environmental simulation enclosure. Site engineering included utility relocations, coordination of electrical design for 1200 KVA and as-built survey of the rail system. Click on the article link below to read more about the design and the future of testing for America’s bridges.

Read the article in: Civil Engineering Magazine (Feb. 2016)

D&K designed repairs for the Waitsfield Covered Bridge which have been completed. Improvements included:

• removal of the former sidewalk and replacement with a new self-supporting sidewalk on widened abutments
• replacement of rotting floor beams
• replacement of the timber wearing deck
• repairs to the abutments
• repairs to the roof
• improvements to approach railings and signing

The project also included the complete reconstruction of Bridge Street between Main Street and the Covered Bridge. This work included:

• new pavement and subbase
• replacement of the sidewalks
• new curbing
• new drainage pipes
• the installation of decorative benches, bricks, and street lights

With the widening of the abutments on the downstream side of the bridge, the Town of Waitsfield is going to be installing decorative railings so the public can use the areas behind the wingwalls as scenic overlooks.

Courtesy Rutgers CAIT/Drew Noel Photography ©2015

Courtesy Rutgers CAIT/Drew Noel Photography ©2015

Courtesy Rutgers CAIT/Drew Noel Photography ©2015

On October 14, Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) in Piscataway, New Jersey, unveiled the Bridge Evaluation and Accelerated Structural Testing Lab (BEAST), the world’s first accelerated testing facility for full-scale bridges.

Applied Research Associates, Inc, (ARA), an international research and engineering company, designed and built the core of testing facility in their Randolph, Vermont location. DuBois & King supported ARA with civil/site design, permitting, and structural engineering services including design of concrete abutments and foundation design for the environmental simulation enclosure. Site engineering included utility relocations, coordination of electrical design for 1200 KVA and as-built survey of the rail system.

According to the CAIT website, the BEAST will be used to “quantitatively measure stresses and deterioration caused by extreme traffic and environmental loading on full-scale bridge systems—and do so in an extremely compressed time frame. Data from the BEAST will allow us to project future performance and longevity of bridge materials and components. The BEAST subjects bridge specimens to rapid-cycling environmental changes and extreme traffic loading to induce and speed up deterioration as much as 30 times, making it possible to simulate 15 to 20 years of wear-and-tear in just a few months.”

“We anticipate being able to validate how various bridge designs, construction materials, and elements can be expected to perform decades from now and give bridge owners empirical evidence to support decision making,” says CAIT research engineering project manager Andrés Roda.

Additional information can be found here:

http://cait.rutgers.edu/beast/ready-to-roll