This month, San Antonio welcomes the World Steel Bridge Symposium & Workshops (WSBS), a renowned event held once every two years. Presented by the National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA) and the Federal Highway Administration, the conference will connect professionals from around the world to a comprehensive download on all aspects of steel bridge design and construction.

The WSBS will be held at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio from Tuesday, Nov. 17, through Friday, Nov. 20, and it opens with preconference workshops Tuesday and Wednesday.

The symposium sessions begin Wednesday afternoon, starting first with the keynote address, presented by Per Tviet from Agder University, Norway. “Tviet will outline how the inclined hangers with multiple intersections make the network arch bridge act like a truss, with only axial compressive and tensile forces, limited bending moments and shear forces,” wrote Roger E. Ferch, executive director of NSBA, in a recent newsletter. Shortly after the keynote session, the exhibit hall will open. (See exhibitor list below for details.)

Ferch also noted a special “Network Arch Case Study” session, presented Thursday by HNTB’s Theodore Zoli, who was recently awarded a $500,000 grant by the T. MacArthur Foundation “for his work on bridge design and security reinforcement.”

The symposium sessions continue through Friday, and include several topics, such as the following: erection, analysis, skewed bridges, curved girders, and fatigue/fracture.

For more on the conference, visit www.steelbridges.org/wsbs