PHILADELPHIA, PA. — Within minutes after the East Coast’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake on Aug. 23, the Burlington County Bridge Commission was able to assess the impact on its landmark bridges crossing from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, determining that the earthquake did not impact the safety or functionality of the bridges. Smart technology sensing and data collection equipment is installed on the two commission-owned bridges and monitored by the Commission Engineer of Record Pennoni Associates.

 TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Finley Engineering Group announced that the first of 783 concrete segments was erected on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011, for the new SR826/836 Palmetto/Dolphin Expressway Interchange in Miami. A 460-foot-long gantry, manufactured by DEAL, will erect the segments using a top-down construction approach.

  RENO, NEV. — Six full-size pickup trucks took a wild ride on a 16-foot-high steel bridge when it shook violently in a series of never-before-conducted experiments to investigate the seismic behavior of a curved bridge with vehicles in place. The 145-foot-long, 162-ton steel and concrete bridge was built atop four large, 14-foot by 14-foot, hydraulic shake tables in the University of Nevada, Reno’s world-renowned Large-Scale Structures Earthquake Engineering Laboratory. Watch the video ...

  WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a video that illustrates how to build a geosynthetic-reinforced soil integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS). It is intended to educate designers, engineers, contractors, and inspectors on the fundamentals of the GRS-IBS. The video follows the GRS-IBS Interim Implementation Guide (FHWA-HRT-11-026).

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $22 million for the Maryland Department of Transportation to complete preliminary engineering and environmental work for replacement and expansion of the Susquehanna River Bridge on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC) that stretches from Boston to Washington, DC.