A three day seminar from 24 to 26 June 2015 was organized by AIT Consulting and Smart Infrastructure Asset Management Australia (SIAMA) on “Effective Bridge Management Systems & Bridge Design & Construction” to tackle several issues related to bridge engineering. The seminar presented several topics focusing on effective bridge management systems, bridge monitoring, bridge design and construction from renowned experts in the field of bridge engineering.
“A bridge’s service life is limited by both its structural deterioration and its functional obsolescence as traffic demands grow”, said Prof. Yew-Chaye Loo, Chair, Board of Directors, SIAMA. This seminar aimed: (1) to create a deeper understanding of concrete bridge management systems within a global methodology to be implemented by the authorities, in which the design and construction stages, where important measures to attain durability must be implemented, are also considered; (2) to apprehend the bridge life cycle involving the selection of bridges, systems modeling and design, construction, and post construction management and monitoring; (3) to create an awareness and understanding of the various bridge types, their modeling analysis, design and construction, in line with current trends and state-of-the-art.
The seminar attracted a total of 37 participants from 13 countries including Myanmar, Thailand, India, Nepal, Philippines, Japan, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The distinguished guest speakers who shared their invaluable and extremely useful practical knowledge about various aspects of Bridge Management Systems, Bridge Inspection, Bridge Monitoring, Bridge Design, and Bridge Construction included: Prof. Pennung Warnitchai, Professor, School of Engineering and Technology, AIT; Dr. Jaeho Lee, CEO and CTO, SIAMA; Dr. Yang Li, Project Manager, SIAMA; Mr. Fujita, Project Enigneer, EJEC; Dr. Songkiat Matupayont, Technical Director, Civil and Structural Engineers Co. Ltd., Thailand; Dr. Kittipoom Rodsin, Assistant Professor, King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand; and Dr. Naveed Anwar Executive Director, AIT Consulting, AIT.
The seminar greatly helped the participants to learn the best practices from those who manage, inspect and preserve bridges. We do not have the luxury of building new bridges whenever our old ones age or fall into states of disrepair. We must be pro-active and anticipate the factors that will degrade our bridges and address them before they occur. An important objective of this seminar was to comprehensively understand how to design, build, manage, inspect, monitor and preserve bridges. Beyond the high level academic discussions, participants in the seminar learned various aspects of the entire bridge life cycle, and exposure to latest technologies, tools, and trends.
