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Covered bridge Preservation National Best Practices Conference

(Text adapted from www.uvm.edu/coveredbridges/ http://www.uvm.edu/coveredbridges/conference/2003.html and from the conference agenda)

University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, June 5-7, 2003 - The Best Practices, Care and Repair of Covered Bridges National Conference was held for highway engineers, covered bridge maintenance personnel, fund raisers for the preservation of covered bridges, covered bridge preservation organizations, historic preservationists, general contractors, structural engineers, covered bridge historians, and community members.
       The conference was organized into two tracks featuring bridge preservation case studies, best practices in maintaining covered bridges, engineering, covered bridge history and tourism strategies.

Titles and authors of papers presented
The conference proceedings will be published in print and in on-line formats. Watch the website address given above for availability.
       Eric DeLony, Chief, Historic American Engineering Record - The Value of Old Bridges
       Joseph Conwill - Who Built the Covered Bridges? The Social Organization of Building
       Robert L. McCullough - Timber Crossings
       Lola Bennett - From Craft to Science: Early American Wooden Covered Bridges
       Ben Schafer - Engineering Analysis of Covered Wooden Bridges from the HAER Summer 2002 Project
       Robert H. Durfee - Analyzing Covered Bridges for Live Loads
       Robert H. Canham - Rigorous Structural Analysis and Load Rasing of Historic Town Lattice Trusses
       William Collins - The Tohickon Aqueduct
       Mathew Reckard - Smith Trusses: Bringing Covered Bridges into the Industrial Age
       Anne Lynk - Covered Bridges and the Tourism Economy
       Jan Lewandoski - In-Kind Repair of Wood Truss Highway Bridges: Strategies and Options for Keeping Them in Use
       Jack Smoot - Burfordville Covered Bridge Restoration: A Case Study
       Craig Struble - Rehabilitation of the Wawona Covered Bridge: A Balance of Engineering Requirements and Historic Preservation Ethics
       Arnold Milton Graton Jr. - Restoration Philosophy for Covered Bridges: Old vs. New
       David J. Hoyne - Cambridge Poland/Junction Covered Bridge
       Leon Buckwalter - The Stabilization of King's Covered Bridge
       M.G. Sanders and T.L. Amburgey - Wood Treating Techniques for Preserving Pieces of History
      Ronald W. Anthony - Condition Assessment of Timber Using Resistance Drilling and Digital Radioscopy
       Samer H. Petro - Preserving Historic Covered Bridges Using Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers
       David C. Fischetti - Engineering Needs of Covered Bridges
       Dario Gasparini - Structural Behavior and Maintenance of Prestressed Covered Bridges
       Phillip C. Pierce - Analyzing Those Intriguing Town Lattice Trusses
       Sean T. James - Historic Covered Bridge Rehabilitations - Lessons Learned
       Jay Messier - Rehabilitation of the Cooley Covered Bridge
       Willy F. Grimmke - Steps Toward Reaching a Consensus for Rehabilitating and Upgrading a 150-Year-Old Covered Bridge: A Case Study
       Christopher Marston - A Case Study of the HAER Summer Recording Team of 2002
       Michiko Tanaka - Documentation and Preservation of Covered Bridges in Lane County
      Jim Barker - Protecting Indiana's Covered Bridges, One Person's Approach
       A presentation from the Vermont Historic Covered Bridge Committee: Susan Scribner, Warren Tripp, Nancy Boone, and Eric Gilbertson - Development and Application of an Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Plan
       Prof. Thomas D. Visser - The Burlington Charter for Covered Bridges - a suggested statement of principles
       Phillip C. Pierce - The Case for Building New Covered Bridges
       Robert H. Durfee - Fire Protection and Fire Prevention on Covered Bridges

The conference was Sponsored by the: National Park Service, Historic Preservation Training Center; NPS Historic American Engineering Record; National Covered Bridge Research Program; Federal Highway Administration; Historic Windsor, The Preservation Education Institute; Historic Preservation Program; and the College of Arts &. Sciences, University of Vermont.
       Among the many cosponsors were the American Society of Civil Engineers, History and Heritage Committee, and The National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, Inc.
       The Conference was the first of its kind to collect the vast array of information that exists on covered bridges by inviting all those concerned with covered bridge preservation to participate. A goal of the conference was to develop a national reference base for evaluating various treatments of historic covered bridges in ways that will maintain their historic integrity as National Register properties.
       The conference was part of the National Historic Covered Bridge Program funded under Section 1224(b) of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century.

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Joe Nelson, P.O Box 267, Jericho, VT 05465-0267, jcnelson@together.net
This file posted June 30, 2003