Building Better Bridges (broadcast Friday, October 26th, 2007)

Detail Showing Connection of Suspender to Floor Beam, Golden Gate Bridge, Spanning Mouth of San Francisco Bay. Jet Lowe, photographer. Library of Congress image.

Engineers have been building bridges for hundreds of years. But are better designs, techniques, and materials available today? This month, Minnesota's Department of Transportation picked a design for the new Interstate 35W Bridge, to replace the one that collapsed nearly three months ago. In this segment, Ira and guests talk about what it takes to build high-performance structures. We'll take a look at the winning design and talk with engineers about how they're making bridges safer. We'll also get an update on the investigation into what caused the August 1st bridge collapse. Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests

Henry Petroski
Author, "The Toothpick: Technology and Culture" (Knopf, 2007), "To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design" (1985)
Aleksandar S. Vesic (veh-SIK) Professor, Civil Engineering
Professor, History
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina

Andrew Hermann
District 1 Director
American Society of Civil Engineers
Managing Partner
Hardesty & Hanover
New York, New York

Taichiro Okazaki
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Kristine Edwards
Bridge Project Coordinator, Tappan Zee Bridge Project
Former Bridge Management Engineer, Lower Hudson Valley
New York State Department of Transportation
Tarrytown, New York