Hampson, K and Fischer, M (1997) Structural designs and construction technologies for California highway bridges. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 123(3), pp. 269-275. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
The California highway bridge construction market is the largest in the United States and still growing. It arguably represents the greatest concentration of highway bridge expenditure in the world. To gain insight into this important engineering and construction market, this paper reviews the technological context of California's bridge construction sector from three perspectives: A technological overview, current technological directions, and emerging trends. The paper describes the dominance of the California Department of Transportation in designing and administering highway bridge projects and highlights the emergence of standardized cast-in-place prestressed concrete box girder bridges as the dominant design. Contractors have responded to this standardized design with continuous incremental improvements through adaptation of construction process technologies. The paper concludes that falsework, formwork, and concrete placement technologies are particularly important in gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage for construction of these bridges. This has led to specialized differentiation through firms seeking technological-based market niches.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | falsework, construction technology, construction market, bridge project, competitive advantage, adaptation, formwork, construction process, emergence, structural design, differentiation, bridge construction, placement, girder, United States |
| Subjects: | construction methods, architectural engineering, digital engineering, organization, user focus, infrastructure and transport systems, systems engineering, market analysis, building construction, Geography, infrastructure engineering, management, structural engineering |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Site Management, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Human Resources, Construction Technology, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here