Wood Transportation Structures Research
The U.S. Congress passed legislation known as the Timber Bridge Initiative
(TBI) in 1988. Its objective was to establish a national program to provide
effective and efficient utilization of wood as a structural material for highway
bridges. Responsibility for the development, implementation, and administration
of the timber bridge program was assigned to the USDA
Forest Service. Within the program, the Forest Service established three
primary program areas: demonstration bridges, technology transfer, and research.
The demonstration bridge program, administered by the Forest Service National
Wood in Transportation Information Center (NWITIC) in Morgantown, West
Virginia, provided matching funds on a competitive basis to local governments
to demonstrate timber bridge technology through the construction of demonstration
bridges. Funding for this Forest Service program ended in fiscal year 2004.
The NWTIC also maintains a technology transfer program to provide assistance
and state-of-the-art information related to timber bridges.
Responsibility for the research portion of the TBI program was assigned
to the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL),
the national wood utilization research laboratory of the US Forest Service.
The primary focus of TBI research was the development of new and improved
technology for timber bridge materials and systems. In 1992, the FPL research
program was expanded to include wood transportation structures such as noise
barriers, marine facilities, retaining walls, and sign supports. At the same
time, a joint research program was initiated between FPL and the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) Turner-Fairbank Highway
Research Center to implement the FHWA timber bridge research program mandated
under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991.
Research under the FPL wood transportation structures program may be accomplished
entirely by FPL staff engineers but is more commonly accomplished through
cooperative efforts with universities, government agencies, and private industry.
Technology and information transfer is an important and integral part of this
program. This internet site was established to provide readily accessible
current information related to wood transportation structures research, including
the research needs assessment, a current research summary, and research publications.
For more information, contact James
P. Wacker, Research
Engineer (FAX 608-231-9508)
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