Professor Tripti Singh has been honoured as one of four colleagues who shared the “Enduring Impact Award” at the International Conference on Timber Bridges (ICTB). The conference, the fifth ICTB conference and first in the Southern Hemisphere, followed the World Conference on Timber Engineering in Brisbane last month and was hosted in Rotorua, New Zealand, from June 29 to July 2 by the Timber Design Society and NZ Transport Agency.
Today, Wood Central spoke with Professor Singh, who was appointed Director of the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life at Sunshine Coast University in 2023, who said 20 Australians joined more than 100 New Zealanders at the conference: “One of the highlights of the conference was the student and early-career researcher timber bridge competition,” said Professor Singh, one of the organisers of the conference. “Two of my students from the University of Queensland took part, and their team—collaborating with Scion and NZTA—was awarded runner-up whilst the winning team received a $2000 prize.”
Last year, Wood Central reported that the NZ Transport Agency was “turning back the clock” and looking to build short-span bridges out of timber, rather than concrete, as part of a push to construct lightweight bridges that can carry vehicles on a low-carbon transport system. At the time, Dr Henri Bailleres, head of Scion’s Forest to Timber Products program, said timber bridges have the potential to be “one of the most impactful showrooms for timber in this country”.
As it stands, the agency manages more than 4,200 bridges across the country, but only 14 highway bridges are made from timber —a legacy of the network undergoing rapid upgrades and expansions since the mid-1960s. However, the number of highway bridges made using timber is rising, with Wood Central reporting in December that the agency was building its first timber bridge in more than 50 years, halfway between Paeroa and Kopu on State Highway 26.
At the time, Rob Campbell, Regional Manager of Maintenance and Operations, said, “Road bridges in New Zealand generally utilise concrete or steel,” adding that the project was the “first to herald a return to a more sustainable design, incorporating timber beams and a deck.”
According to Campbell, mass timber—not steel or concrete—could become the new standard for bridge construction, turning an ostensibly minor project into a shift in design for future highway bridge replacements. The key, he said, is in the layering—employing glulam, which Campbell asserts is twice as strong per kilogram compared to steel and specifically designed for durability and resilience: “The Onetai Bridge is designed to last 100 years, linking the greater Waikato region with the Coromandel Peninsula and providing a small but vital part of our state highway network,” he said. “The replacement will add to the resilience and safety of this route, as the design will be stronger and wider than the old bridge.”
- To learn more about the push to build new bridges out of mass timber – especially glulam, which performs strongly under fire – click here for Wood Central’s special feature from December 2024.
