Confirmation

The Aug. 1 collapse of the I-35W bridge brought back memories of a parallel experience. I am county engineer of Montgomery County, Ohio (Dayton), and my office has jurisdiction of 554 bridges. About 10 years ago I had a potential problem with the Siebenthaler Bridge, a 70-year-old, 265-ft-long truss bridge. We increased our inspections from annually to monthly. We then felt we needed more sophisticated inspection and analysis than our office could offer.  Burgess and Niple of Columbus, Ohio, was retained. Its crew physically inspected each member and joint of the bridge and made a detailed analysis of the bridge’s strength. It was expensive, but in hindsight it was worthwhile.

About 15 months later we again had Burgess and Niple do a second indepth inspection. As a result, I closed the bridge in 2000. The bridge carried 14,000 vehicles each day, and I received a tremendous amount of criticism for my action. My comment to the media at the time was, “If a school bus with children on board was on the bridge when it collapsed, I had better be standing underneath the bridge.”

 Since then I’ve always had a small doubt about whether I made the right decision. On Wednesday, Aug. 1, when I saw the school bus on the collapsed I-35W bridge, I finally knew I made the right decision in closing the Siebenthaler Bridge.

On Aug. 2, my wife and I were driving to Virginia when I received a cell call from the Dayton Daily News asking my thoughts about the I-35W collapse. I told the reporter that at the moment I received the call, I was crossing the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, W.Va., on the bridge that replaced the Silver Bridge. The Silver Bridge collapsed 40 years ago with a loss of 46 lives. It was this disaster that gave rise to the bridge inspection requirements that exist today.

JOSEPH LITVIN P.E., P.S.
Montgomery County Engineer
Dayton, Ohio

No Consensus

Speaking on behalf of the 700,000 design professionals in the U.S. collectively represented by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Council of Engineering Companies and the American Institute of Architects, we would like to express concern about the cover story, “New Standard Forms Seek Unity on Fairness”. The article misrepresents to the design and construction industry the participation of design professionals in ConsensusDOCS.

For the record, the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC) has not endorsed ConsensusDOCS and has not joined ConsensusDOCS; EJCDC’s involvement with ConsensusDOCS has not been “pretty significant.” To our knowledge, no organization in the design professional community has provided comments on or contributed intellectual property to ConsensusDOCS.

LAWRENCE A. JACOBSON
Executive Director,
National Society of Professional Engineers

CHRISTINE MCENTEE
Executive Vice President and CEO,
American Institute of Architects

PATRICK J. NATALE
Executive Director,
American Society of Civil Engineers

DAVID A. RAYMOND
President and CEO,
American Council of Engineering Companies