INFRASTRUCTURES * USA - Maine first to use process for stronger bridges

The latest in bridge construction technology goes unnoticed by drivers zipping over a two-lane highway that carves through the countryside of central Maine

Orono,Maine,USA -Associated Press/FORBES, by CLARKE CANFIELD -11 April 2009: -- ... The 35-foot-long Neal Bridge on Route 11 is the first in the nation to use a process developed at the University of Maine that's dubbed "bridge in a backpack" because the materials used to make the arches can be carried to the site in duffel bags... Once at the site, a light, durable fabric that folds as easily as a pair of pants is filled with concrete to form arches that will support the span. They're installed in a matter of days or even hours, instead of weeks. The process is being touted as a way to cut costs and lengthen the life expectancy of bridges... "Instead of having problems in 20 years, you won't have problems until 40 years," said Habib Dagher, director of the university's Advanced Structures and Composites Center. "This could be 100-plus years of performance."... (Photo by Bridget Brown/Bangor Daily News - Engineering students show the light weightedness of the 23 composite arches used to build the Neal Bridge in Pittsfield during a presentation announcing the commercialization of composite bridge technologies in Maine at the University of Maine's Advanced Engineered Wood Composites center in Orono on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009)