NEW: Highway Bridge/Building Initiatives

UK address: 5 Dee Rd, Talacre, CH8 9RS, UK.

E-mail: info@sustainablescience.org

Phones: +1 319 930 3477, +44 1745 855 181

Skype: sustsci

This site has been online since January 22, 1997. Last update: January 22, 2012

Contact info:

The LPSA Highway Bridge / Durable Building Initiatives:

Consider the following unique features, in addition to the sustainability and low-tech characteristics of small diameter timber (SDT) resources:

· All LPSA structures are naturally resistant to the destructive actions of earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding. This is due to the slide-fitting/tension-induced compression connection mechanism. Most distortion energy is harmlessly dissipated through local rigid-body (i.e. strain-free) displacements

· Some SDT species, e.g. Black Locust (robinia pseudoacacia), are structurally superior to concrete, steel and commercial timber, with much lower processing energy and overall comparative costs.

· LPSA structures’ manufacture, transportation and assembly operations are reduced to dealing with compact, portable kit components. Major energy and costs savings are possible. Reusability of structures is an added advantage.

The LPSA analysis regime, predicts that the two LPSA “pedestrian” bridges recently completed by this institute, are capable of carrying highway bridge loading. Although geometrically unsuitable for highway use, they can still serve as a testing facility to verify, by actual loading (to destruction if necessary), the soundness of theoretical and numerical analysis.

Such testing would be a possible first step in a larger project to establish the intellectual and practical ingredients of the LPSA technology.

We propose two initiatives with vast worldwide applications potential:

· A sustainable highway bridge initiative. This would be the “green” answer to recent bridge collapses and the prohibitive costs of concrete and steel bridges. Hopefully, bridges of the future will be assembled from reusable kits of SDT and cast non-ferrous alloy connectors.

· A durable building technology initiative. This would be of specific relevance to rising sea levels (due to global warming) and would be the “green” answer to recent seaside disasters in Bangladesh and the USA, and in earthquake-prone regions.

We invite interested international parties, from universities, research groups and industry to cooperate with this institute in further development, technology transfer and commercialization of this sustainable technology.