In March, we hosted two sessions with Kiewit Corporation on March 4th and Versabar on March 18th. We had 27 participants in total in these two sessions. John Brestin, our speaker from Kiewit, gave some information about the history of arches, types, design, and different aspects of arches in structural engineering. Some arch bridges (natural and human-constructed) were shown from different locations, and different types of arch bridges including braced arch, tied arch, and true arch were presented. John also presented a true arch-type bridge designed by himself about 25 years ago with the plan details and the load transfer mechanism. Other arch-type bridges were introduced, and some challenges in design were presented. In this session, Kiewit provided Uber Eat vouchers for all attendees.
Pete Sculley, our speaker from Versabar, presented the design, fabrication, and use of the world’s first and only self-steering riser installation bridge. He first introduced some projects done by Versabar to present some heavy lifting solutions even in water. Then, Appo Riser Bridge which was engineered and fabricated by Versabar in Houston was introduced and the challenges and analyses were presented. Its unique construction procedure with different tests were shown and discussed. In this session, Versabar contributed financially to our student organization.
Both sessions had some active members who asked some challenging questions from our speakers. Finally, the one who asked the best question from our speakers received SEAoT gifts. Some photos of these two sessions are attached.
