Public Roads: 80 Years Old, But the Best Is Yet to Come

THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY INSTITUTE (NHI)

4600 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22203
Tel. (703) 235-0500; Fax (703) 235-0593
Home Page: http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov

Delivering Solutions for a World in Motion

New NHI Courses Available

NHI course #13069, Hazardous Bridge Coatings: Design and Management of Maintenance and Removal Operations, is now ready for delivery. This training course focuses on the maintenance and/or removal of bridge paint systems that contain lead or other potentially toxic materials. In an effort to ensure that these operations are cost-effective and performed in compliance with applicable regulations, the course offers a step-by-step method to the design, specification, and management of bridge painting projects.

The target audience for this course is highway and transportation agency employees and private industry personnel who are responsible for development of contract specifications and procurement requirements for the removal and/or maintenance of bridge paint systems. The classroom presentation includes a combination of lectures and discussions, demonstrations of key methods and procedures, and extensive workshops, which comprise nearly half of the class time. In addition, each participant receives a user-friendly field guide containing a detailed project design checklist, a model/template specification, suggested contractor pre-qualification package and pre-bid meeting agenda, and a submittal review checklist, as well as an environmental, health, and safety checklist to assess project-specific performance.

Please consult the NHI Web site for a course location nearest you, or call NHI Training Course Coordinator Lynn Cadarr at (703) 235-0528 to request this course.

Another bridge-related NHI course, Bridge Coatings Inspection (course #13079), is scheduled to start this spring. The course deals with the inspection of surface preparation and application of protective coating systems for bridge and highway structures, including the development of site-specific inspection procedures based on a governing specification. The course provides a basic overview of the theory of corrosion and its control, and the characteristics of various bridge coating types, as well as surface preparation and coating application techniques and equipment. Discussion of coating specifications and identification of coating defects are also addressed in the curriculum.

This course is an update and expansion of the previous bridge painting inspection curriculum (course #13038). Two new focus areas include the overcoating of existing paint systems and the inspector safety and protection of the environment during surface preparation and coating application operations.

This course is for highway and transportation agency employees and private industry personnel who are responsible for the on-site inspection of protective coating systems during their installation by outside painting contractors. Please check our Web site for updated information on this and other courses.

Check every issue of Public Roads for the latest training and educational activities of NHI.