21st Century American Highways and Bridges: Wood in Transportation, Timber and Covered Bridges, Covered Bridge Manual(CD-ROM)

This electronic book on CD-ROM provides the full story of wood in transportation, timber bridges, and covered bridges. It includes a comprehensive library of wood in transportation and bridges publications compiled by the National Wood in Transportation Program of the USDA Forest Service. The National Wood In Transportation Program was implemented to diversify local economies by providing the technical and financial assistance needed to expand the use of wood in transportation networks. By developing markets for underutilized wood; advancing modern timber bridge designs; improving wood composite products; and providing information to local community leaders, business officials, and engineers, the Program was designed to improve local economies and infrastructure systems while utilizing America's primary renewable resource, wood. Modern timber bridges combine today's technology with a renewable American resource. Advances in wood preservation and the design of wooden structures make the modern timber bridge an economical, safe, and attractive alternative to other materials for bridge construction in many situations. Prior to its closure, the Wood In Transportation (WIT) Program funded 322 timber bridge projects. Included in this collection is the USDA book, Timber Bridges Design, Construction, Inspection, and Maintenance, a heavily illustrated guide to the history and design of timber bridges. Also in the collection: the Covered Bridge Manual, a beautifully illustrated book by the Federal Highway Administration. This manual provides guidance to those involved with all aspects of the work, from initial inspection and evaluation, through the engineering of rehabilitation, to construction issues. Broadly speaking, this manual covers general terminology and historic development of covered bridges. The manual also addresses loads, structural analysis, connections, and design issues. The last six chapters contain discussions of evaluation, maintenance, strengthening, and preservation of existing covered bridges; historic considerations of existing structures; and provide a state-of-the-art guide on wood preservatives for covered bridges. Historic preservation requirements as they relate to the U.S. Department of Interior standards for these important and unusual structures also are provided. The appendices include an extensive series of case studies. The manual focuses on the nuances of the engineering aspects of covered bridges, including some issues not addressed currently by national bridge specifications. The chapter on timber connections provides a comprehensive discussion of covered bridge joinery and represents an important contribution to covered bridge engineering. There is extensive material from the Federal Highway Administration s National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation (NHCBP) program, which provides funding to assist the states in their efforts to preserve, rehabilitate, or restore the Nation s historic covered bridges.