Designers, owners, fabricators, and contractors are all invited to enter this year’s Prize Bridge Awards, sponsored by the National Steel Bridge Alliance and the American Institute of Steel Construction. New this year is a special award to celebrate owners who are on the cutting-edge of innovation.

“We’re looking for outstanding bridges that showcase and celebrate the innovative use of structural steel,” said Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD, president of AISC. The entry deadline is September 30, 2023, and there is no fee to enter the competition.

The panel of industry-expert judges will also consider entries in several categories defined by bridge size and function, weighing each project’s innovation, economics, aesthetics, design, and engineering solutions.

AISC's flagship competition for buildings is now accepting entries for the 2024 IDEAS² Awards--and this year will be different from previous years.

AISC's Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS²) Awards recognize outstanding projects that illustrate the exciting possibilities of structural steel. They are the industry's most prestigious design honor for building structures.

Previously, awards were given based on the size of a project. AISC has now updated the competition to focus more on innovation regardless of the project's budget.

"There's so much innovation in the design community and industry today across all budgets," said AISC President Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD. "Dollars are no longer the best way to categorize structures. Instead, we're looking for the best projects in the country that highlight specific unique advantages of working with structural steel--things like sustainability, adaptability, cost, speed, reliability, and resilience."

A brand new standard, Seismic Provisions for Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Structural Steel Buildings (ANSI/AISC 342-22), is now available as a free download from aisc.org/standards.

The AISC Committee on Specifications developed and approved the document as a revision to the structural steel provisions in the 2017 edition of ASCE/SEI 41, Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings. The next release of that standard will likely adopt ANSI/AISC 342-22 in chapter 9.

Two engineers from the American Institute of Steel Construction will receive 2023 Excellence in Engagement Awards from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI).

Steel Solutions Center Staff Engineer Yasmin Chaudhry, PE, and University Education Manager Kristi Sattler, SE, PE, PhD, will be recognized next month for leading SEAOI’s Women in Structural Engineering group. (For more information on the awards, please visit seaoi.org/seaoi-excellence-engagement-award.)

“We are all so proud of our colleagues Yasmin and Kristi,” said AISC President Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD. “This recognition is well-deserved and highlights the strong contributions they are making through their work to our profession.”

Fifty years after its construction, Willis Tower stands tallest among Chicago’s 126 skyscrapers and remains an icon in its cityscape. Formerly named (and widely known as) the Sears Tower, the 1,450-ft-tall building designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) revolutionized the tubular system that has continued to inform contemporary architectural design.

John Zils, a native Chicagoan and retired SOM associate partner, walked by the Willis Tower construction site every morning on his way to work in the early 1970s, when he was employed as a structural engineer with the company. On his visits, Zils saw firsthand many of the intricacies--and quirks--that went into building what would be the world’s tallest skyscraper for the next 22 years.

“Here was a massive building--76,000 tons of steel--and speed was essential,” Zils recalled. “[The erectors] would erect two floors a week, which was very quick. The column sections were two stories high, so they would erect those columns, and when they hit two levels, then they could do the floor framing.”

For years, there was limited data available to quantify the performance of uncoated weathering steel (UWS) bridges in various environments--but now, thanks to research by the University of Delaware’s Jennifer McConnell, PhD, bridge designers and owners have invaluable information about how to detail and maintain UWS bridges to maximize their service lives.

Her presentation from NASCC: The Steel Conference is now available for free at aisc.org/UWSresearch.

McConnell, recipient of the American Institute of Steel Construction’s 2023 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award, has spent more than a decade examining weathering steel bridges--work that’s crucial as the nation focuses on infrastructure, because corrosion is the most widespread problem those systems face. In 2016, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (which is now called the Association for Materials Protection and Performance) estimated that the worldwide economic impact of corrosion across all sectors is $2.5 trillion annually.

The 2022 collapse of Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge is a call to action: Infrastructure maintenance and repairs must be an urgent priority for the nation.

On May 18, 2023, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report that highlights the importance of proper bridge maintenance--something departments of transportation across the country frequently have to defer due to funding constraints.

“Bridge failures are sudden, but they do not begin suddenly,” said National Steel Bridge Alliance Chief Bridge Engineer Christopher Garrell, PE. “We are continually reminded of the state of the nation's infrastructure, but interest is often fleeting until something catastrophic happens. All materials deteriorate, and that deterioration, when left unabated, can and will lead to failures like we saw in Fern Hollow.”

Structural steel is making its mark on sustainable design, catching the attention of industry professionals who recently presented some of 2023’s biggest architecture awards.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recognized four (and a half!) steel projects among its 27th annual COTE Top Ten Award winners, a lineup of 10 projects that integrate design excellence with environmental performance.

Winning steel structures included the Harvard University Science & Engineering Building, the Nueva School Science and Environmental Center, RIDC Mill 19, and Seattle’s Watershed. One winning project, the Sacramento Zero Net Office Building, employs a hybrid system of steel framing and cross-laminated timber.

For project engineer Katie Lewis at Alfred Benesch & Company, being a part of the Southeast Municipal Park Complex project in Franklin, Tenn., was an opportunity to give back to her hometown--and her work will be a fixture in the community.

Lewis and her team’s contribution to the project was to construct an access road and steel bridge that drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians will use every day to access the park, which is wedged between the interstate and the fast-flowing Harpeth River.

AISC recently gave Lewis an Award of Distinction for not only her outstanding work on the Southeast Park project but also for serving as a role model for others entering the engineering field.

A draft of the next edition of the AISC Specification for Safety-Related Steel Structures for Nuclear Facilities (AISC N690) is now available for public review and comment.

The 2024 update of N690 will supersede the 2018 version.