SEI - IL JANUARY WEBINAR: HLMR Disk Bearings for Steel Plate Girder Bridges 

Join the Structural Engineering Institute – Illinois Chapter for a presentation by Ron Watson (RJ Watson) on “HLMR Disk Bearings for Steel Plate Girder Bridges”. Prior to the start of the presentation, Mark Shaffer, PE, SE (IDOT) will provide brief remarks on IDOT HLMR Bearing Policy/Updates.

High load multi-rotational bearings (HLMR) typically consist of pot, spherical or disk bearings. Over the last 20 years disk bearings have been the device of choice for bridge designers due to their long term performance and cost effectiveness. For steel plate girder bridges disk bearings are the common solution to the problem of distributing the loads, movements and rotations to the substructure without damage.

Two high profile projects demonstrate the advantages of disk bearings for a variety of conditions on plate girder bridges. The first is the $4 Billion LaGuardia Airport Rehabilitation Project where 470 disk bearings were supplied for the plate girder bridges in this complex. The second is the I-480 Valley View Project near Cleveland where the contactor is building a new span between the existing twin spans and then retrofitting the existing plate girder bridges to bring them up to current standards. In both of these projects the disk bearings we called upon for unusual conditions and were able to meet the challenges of these unique projects.

Ron Watson has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil/Structural Engineering from The State University of New York at Buffalo. He has over 40 years of experience in the design, manufacture and testing of high load multi-rotational bearings, seismic isolation devices and bridge deck joint sealing systems. He serves as Chairman of the International Joints and Bearings Research Council and also chairs ASTM Subcommittee D04.32 on Bridges and Structures. He is the Vice Chairman of NSBA Task Group 9 on Bearings. He is also President of R.J. Watson, Inc. which specializes in the design, manufacture and testing of bridge bearing devices and joint sealing systems.