Guide for In-Place Treatment of Wood in Historic Covered and Modern Bridges
This online engineering PDH course provides basic information on procedures for selecting and applying in-place treatments to bridges to prevent or arrest degradation, and discusses different approaches for minimizing damage caused by fire.
Wooden bridges have a long history of use throughout the world, and like bridges made of other materials, the service life of wooden bridges can be enhanced through proper construction, inspection, and maintenance. Wooden bridges, whether historic covered bridges or current highway timber bridges, can be vulnerable to damage from biodeterioration, fire or biodegradation. Biodeterioration is minimized through design and construction practices, and in the case of modern timber bridges, through pressure treatment of the timbers with wood preservatives. However, over time, many bridges need maintenance in order to prevent degradation and to minimize any damage caused by fire.
In order to maintain wood bridges, different methods, procedures and treatments are used. These include; in-place treatments, surface-applied liquid treatments, paste surface treatments, internal treatments, and fire retardants, all of which are discussed in this course.
This 4 PDH online course is mainly intended for structural engineers and others who are interested in learning more about the different methods of applying treatments to bridges and understanding the approaches for minimizing damage caused by fire.
This PE continuing education course is intended to provide you with the following specific knowledge and skills:
- Familiarizing with the causes and problem areas for biodegradation in wooden bridges, the effects of climate and the role of wood structure
- Learning about the different types of supplemental treatments including water-diffusible preservatives, non-diffusible liquid treatments and fumigants
- Gaining a general overview on the application and use of supplemental preservative treatments for covered bridges
- Understanding the use of supplemental fire-retardant treatments for covered bridges
- Exploring supplemental treatment concepts such as liquid surface treatments, paste surface treatments, and internal treatments
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