UNL bridge technology breakthrough
Posted By: Nolan Crane
The engineering department at UNL is working on a ground breaking project. Countries like India and China are already interested in what they’re doing. Here’s Thursday, June 25ths “Excellence in Education” report.
The professors say ten percent of bridges nationwide are identified as structurally deficient. Aging infrastructure is a big problem and they say improvement methods are outdated. The nebraska department of roads gave UNL $46,000 or the project. Engineering professors are using the money to create 3D models of bridges to help improve those problem areas.
“Nebraska has roughly 5,000 actual bridge type structures. Well, if Nebraska has that many, you go to a more populated state like New York, Virginia, California, they have quit a few more. If you go to a more populated country like India, they have a lot of them too. So this has the potential to have worldwide applications,” says Wayne Jensen.
If inspectors use the 3D models they can identify problem areas, prevent bridges from collapsing and save millions of dollars for tax payers.
The professors and students have been working on this project for three years.
