FIU’s Azizinamini lobbies USDOT, Congress for accelerated bridge construction

Updated Jul 9, 2016
Azizinamini (left) discusses accelerated bridge construction on Capitol Hill. Photo: FIU News.Azizinamini (left) discusses accelerated bridge construction on Capitol Hill.  Photo: FIU News.

Atorod Azizinamini, who heads up Florida International University’s (FIU) College of Engineering & Computing research on Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC), made a presentation of recent ABC findings before the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on June 23, according to an FIU news release.

The goals of the presentation were to encourage the department to place greater emphasis on ABC, which reduces the impacts of on-site construction and produce safer, more environmentally friendly bridges that will last longer.

With approximately 25 percent of the approximately 600,000 bridges in the U.S. found to be either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, ABC focuses on replacing those substandard bridges while maintaining traffic flow. Its mission is to reduce the costs of bridge construction by reducing the duration of work zones; focusing on preservation, service life, construction costs, and education of the profession; and developing a next-generation workforce that knows and understands ABC.

Following his presentation at the USDOT, Azizinamini went to several Congressional offices on Capitol Hill, including the offices of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.