Raymond-Blythe Professor Issam Harik and Abheetha Peiris, assistant professor, in the Department of Civil Engineering recently received a three-year, $315,000 State Planning and Research (SPR) grant from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC).
Harik, principal investigator and Peiris, co-investigator received the award to support their project titled “SPR 25-662, Retrofit Design of Seismically Deficient Bridges on and over the Interstates and Parkways in Western Kentucky.” The project began on July 1,2024 and will end on June 30, 2027.
“In Kentucky, 6,684 bridges will experience ground accelerations between 0.10g and 1.00g during the AASHTO Maximum Credible Earthquake,” Harik stated. “The objective of this project is to analyze and design the retrofit for bridges having components with capacities that do not exceed the projected seismic demands from major earthquakes impacting Western Kentucky. The project results will provide the necessary information to generate construction cost estimates and prioritize funding for retrofit or replacement of seismically vulnerable bridges.”
Most bridges on and over the interstates and parkways in Western Kentucky are expected to exhibit deficiencies ranging from inadequate seat support to lack of foundation capacity. Research to develop a retrofit design is critical. This project will address the critical need to develop a retrofit design for I-24 bridges and those classified as priority routes by Kentucky Emergency Management and KYTC.
The SPR grant is funding that is supplied each year for the many topics the UK Transportation Center is asked to research for KYTC through the Kentucky Cooperative Transportation Research Program (KCTRP). KCTRP is concerned with the development and conduct of a comprehensive research program in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration.
