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)