‘Bridging’ the nation’s deteriorating systems

The reaction concerning the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota was shock that a relatively “new” bridge could completely fail, says Richard M. Gutkowski, past chairman of the American Society of Civil Engineers Administrative Committee on Bridges and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State University. Some say the public deserves bridges that last much longer and question whether bridges similar to the one in Minneapolis could meet the same fate. “A 40-year-old bridge is not young, it is aging,” says Gutkowski. “Deteriorating condition, loading, and unusual factors likely intersected at I-35W uniquely and are unlikely to occur elsewhere.”

Bridge life

35 to 50 - Anticipated average service life of a bridge in years

Once per decade - Catastrophic collapse of a major bridge in the United States

.0002% - Rate of bridge collapse per decade for approximately 600,000 bridges nationwide

0% - An unattainable rate of bridge collapse

Structural analysis

1967 - Year in which structural computer analysis of bridges was nearly impossible, requiring time-intensive computation that took hours to days

2007 - Computation now takes microseconds on modern laptops

$15,000 to $20,000 - Estimated cost of one advanced engineer to provide a structural analysis on a bridge, a small amount in the total cost of a major bridge when compared to consequences of a collapse

Source: Richard M. Gutkowski, CSU civil and environmental engineering professor and past chairman of the American Society of Civil Engineers Administrative Committee on Bridges, in an article published in The Denver Post, "Bridge engineering a constantly evolving science"

Online solution

"Colorado cannot afford to build enough four-year university campuses to meet the current or future education growth and economic development needs of the state."

—Colorado State University System Chancellor Larry Edward Penley on the CSU System’s new online university, CSU-Colorado, designed to meet the educational and job-skill needs of a growing state population and a 21st-century workforce (see related story, "New CSU-System online university will meet current market and job demands")

Bridge anyone?

"No bridge lasts forever or all Roman bridges would still stand."

—Richard M. Gutkowski, CSU civil and environmental engineering professor and bridge expert, on the lifespan of bridges after the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota (see related statistics in “By the Numbers”)

Peace Corps M.B.A.

"The adage goes, ‘give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.’ Why not add, teach a man about the economics of fishing and he'll keep his business running and possibly employ thousands?"

—Nancy Greenleese in a Voice of America story about the new Colorado State University Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise concentration in the Master of Science in Business Administration program that aims to teach students how to save the world one sustainable business at a time

Energy expert

Ronald M. Sega, former NASA astronaut and under secretary for the U.S. Air Force, joined Colorado State University as professor of systems engineering and vice president for Applied Research for the Colorado State University Research Foundation. As Director of Defense Research and Engineering at the U.S. Department of Defense, Sega focused his efforts on energy and power, aerospace, and knowledge and surveillance. Sega also served as dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs from 1996 to 2001. A former astronaut, Sega flew two missions into space – on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1994 and aboard Atlantis in 1996. "Colorado is expanding its activities in energy research and systems engineering, and Colorado State University is engaged in important research in renewable power sources, biomedical research, and infectious disease study," said Sega. "I look forward to joining the CSU team."

Public health partnership

Colorado's first School of Public Health, a collaborative effort of the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Colorado State University, and the University of Northern Colorado, will open in Fall 2008. The University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, which will take lead authority, will connect its public health strengths with those of CSU and UNC to allow more students to receive public health training, speed interdisciplinary research, and provide access to training and research funds only available to accredited schools of public health. Each university currently offers degrees and research in public health, but the collaboration is expected to maximize their efforts by combining the programs and research into one school. The existing programs will remain independently accredited until the new school receives official accreditation in 2010. The school will serve existing public health professionals and graduate students with online classes and offices and classrooms on all three campuses.
—Northern Colorado Business Report Daily