Beyond Replacement: Rethinking Sustainability in Bridge Engineering

University of Strathclyde Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Annual Lecture

Speaker: David MacKenzie, COWI

Abstract:

The demands on our existing transportation infrastructure are growing as our cities increase in size. We are constantly faced with the need of increasing the capacity of our existing networks. So do we rebuild or refurbish? We live in a world of finite resource and the idea of simply knocking something down and rebuilding it afresh is counter-intuitive to a society that seeks sustainable solutions. So how do we assess the sustainable benefit of refurbishing an existing structure? This presentation will show some of the very impressive engineering solutions to refurbishing major bridges and show how we can measure the effectiveness of sustainable solutions. It will also address the areas of research required for us to provide a better assessment of sustainability of our infrastructure.

Biography:

David MacKenzie acknowledges that he owes a huge debt to whoever bought him his first Lego set! Born in the UK, he was educated in Western Australia before returning in 1984 to start work as a structural engineer. In the intervening 42 years he has lived and worked all over the globe and had the very good fortune to work on some of the most impressive engineering projects, including many complex refurbishment and new build projects. He is now a Senior Technical Director at COWI and is also the Chair of COWIfonden, the Foundation that owns the COWI Group. In this role, he is responsible for a research budget that is invested in the development of engineering science across a wide range of civil engineering and environmental topics.