The event runs June 5-8 and details can be found online at www.internationalbridgeconference.org and registration is available at www.eswp.com/bridge

Last year a new strategic IBC partnership between the ESWP and the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) was announced. The two organizations have now developed a 2011 conference curriculum focusing on bridge financing and regulations, new project delivery methods and safety to help increase participation of highway and bridge contractors and public officials. The event provides technical sessions, workshops and special interest sessions and seminars that are four-, eight- or 16-hour intensive courses.

IBC annually attracts more than 1,600 attendees, with the 2010 participants coming from 48 states and 17 countries.

The three primary purposes of the IBC are:

• to host unparalleled educational sessions and workshops covering all of the latest trends and technologies in the bridge marketplace;

• to help service providers and manufacturers sell products and services to customers in a growing domestic and international bridge market; and

• to provide networking opportunities for thousands of professionals representing all facets of the bridge industry.

“IBC exists to help service providers and manufacturers sell products and services to customers in growing national and international bridge markets,” says ARTBA Director of Public Affairs Jeff Solsby. “It annually attracts thousands of bridge owners and engineers, senior policymakers, government officials, bridge designers, construction executives and suppliers from all 50 states and 20 countries in North America, Europe and Asia.”

Bypasses Needed to Bypass ‘Corridors of Crap’ Bypasses

“The problem, of course, is that you can hardly go anywhere in North Carolina, or even in the country, and not find a state-taxpayer-built highway envisioned as a ’bypass’ that has become a traffic nightmare because the local government involved allowed extreme highway glop to be built along it. Even places as comparatively traffic-free as Albemarle have clogged bypasses. Shelby wants a bypass of its bypass. They are all what former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory has referred to as ’corridors of crap.’”

— Mary Newsom, a Charlotte Observer associate editor and op-ed columnist, in her “The Naked City” blog.

Circular Solutions

Please don’t leave after the next sentence. The International Roundabout Conference will be held in Carmel, Ind., May 18-20. Read on. This event has some legs.