CTIS Awarded $188,000 to Detect Bridge Deteriorations
June 23, 2009
The Center for Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CTIS) at UTEP has been awarded $188,000 for a project titled “nondestructive testing to identify concrete bridge deterioration”.
Led by Dr. Soheil Nazarian, Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of CTIS, the project is part of a larger project to find better ways to detect bridge deterioration. Project partners include Rutgers University and BAM, a federal institute from Germany.
“UTEP’s role is to look at some of the sonic and seismic methods,” said Nazarian. “CTIS is known for this type of research.”
According to Nazarian, detecting bridge failures isn’t a real problem in El Paso, but it’s a huge problem nationally. Finding these problems early on through nondestructive testing is critical.
“We are trying to find things without poking holes or drilling holes,” said Nazarian. “They use some nondestructive methods for testing now and perform visual inspections, but once you see something, then it’s too late.”
CTIS is internationally known as a center of excellence in nondestructive testing of transportation infrastructure. For more information visit the CTIS web site.
