A section of I-10 through San Antonio, Texas, where the highway was to be widened over an existing culvert that was structurally unable to support the weight of traditional embankment fills, posed a major challenge to transportation agencies dealing with the problem. The Texas Department of Transportation was not satisfied with the identified solution--using a reinforced concrete mat supported on drilled shafts to span the culvert and support the embankment fill. A better solution, offered by the FHWA regional Resource Center's geotechnical engineering and hydraulic technical service team, was to construct an embankment using expanded polystyrene geofoam blocks as a lightweight alternative. This article, citing this example and others, discusses the FHWA Resource Centers and how they provide technology deployment, training, and technical expertise for transportation customers nationwide.
Samenvatting