BRIDGE ENGINEERING DILEMMAS

The International Fair of Road Construction Industry AUTOSTRADA-POLSKA is the Central and Eastern Europe's most important business-sector expo. The Expo is the showcase for road engineering industry leaders. The exhibition is accompanied with an extensive conference program; most topical industry issues are discussed here. The Polish Chamber of Steelworks and Road and Bridge Research Institute held the conference designed to address the question "Road bridges of steel or concrete??"  

The conference, with expert keynote speakers Leszek Rafalski and Karol Heindrich has been designed to compare bridge constructions made of steel with those made of concrete (reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete). Both materials - i.e. steel and concrete have been commonly utilised for bridge; these have been in use for decades. Bridge constructions made of these different materials have their own characteristics.  And this was the main focus of the meeting. The newly-rebuilt Łazienkowski Bridge in Warsaw, which had been damaged in fire was the centre of attention.

Bridge engineering just like any other field) needs to consider economies of scale. Projects design and implementation are closely related to bridges size - different rules apply in large span and narrow-span constructions.

The conference raised the question, yet no define answer can be provided. Karol Heindrich said during the conference that a decision which type of design to choose should be considered on individual basis.

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