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Larson Design Group’s Quentin D. Rissler, PE, transportation program manager and Lititz office leader, has been chosen as a presenter for the 2019 American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE) National Conference. The conference will be held in May at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee, and is expected to attract more than 600 public and private sector design professionals, vendors, contractors and guests from across the country. It is one of the highway industry’s premiere events, providing a forum for networking and education on topics relevant to the transportation industry.
Rissler’s topic will be “The Big Slide: Replacing Dual Bridges in One Weekend,” which summarizes the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s 2017 demolition and reconstruction of a 60-year-old structurally deficient bridge in Lehigh County within a 55-hour timeframe using innovative sliding bridge technology designed by LDG.
The accelerated bridge construction “roller” technique was a first for the Turnpike and one of the few bridge slides to have been achieved in the Commonwealth in the past several decades. Larson teamed with Road-Con, Inc. to replace the bridge on the northeast extension of I-476 over the course of a single weekend, significantly minimizing disruption to tens of thousands of motorists and avoiding stiff financial penalties.
Since the completion of the project, LDG’s pioneering approach has proven to be a popular topic for industry conferences. This will be the second national presentation on “The Big Slide” for Rissler and 15th overall, including to PennDOT and number of professional societies in the region, among them the Delaware Valley Geo Institute/Structural Engineers Institute, Associated Pennsylvania Constructors , and ASHE’s Delaware Valley, Franklin (Erie), Harrisburg and Williamsport Chapters.