October 2, 2013
Sissy Nikolaou, PhD, PE Senior Associate and Director Geoseismic Dept. Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, New York, NY
Dr. Nikolaou, a UB alumnus, joined Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers (MRCE) in 1998 as a geotechnical engineer and has expanded MRCE's services in earthquake engineering. She became a Senior Associate in 2011. A leading expert in seismic design in the Eastern United States, her expertise is in soil-structure interaction, liquefaction hazard assessment and mitigation, performance based design, and risk assessment of critical facilities, for which she applies cutting-edge technologies. Her work is widely published and her contributions have been recognized by the Prakash Prize for Excellence in Earthquake Engineering among other awards.
Education: PhD ('98) & MSCE ('95), SUNY at Buffalo Diploma ('93) National Technical University, Athens
Professional Career: 1998 to date: Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, Senior Associate
Professional Licenses: Professional Engineer (PE), New York; European Engineer, Greece; FEMA-certified Urban Search and Rescue Structural Specialist (incorporating ATC-20 Training for post-earthquake structural evaluations)
Challenges in Highway Design, Bridge Foundation and Seismic Engineering: A Practitioner’s Perspective
The densely populated corridor along the Atlantic coast between Boston and the capital of Washington, DC, is home to many important bridges in the country. The regional geology is very old, tracing the history of the earth, with bedrock formed more than a billion years ago and surface geology that is very complex and variable.
A thorough understanding of the local geologic and tectonic environment is essential to bridge foundation design, which has evolved tremendously from the underwater hand excavation of Brooklyn Bridge’s caisson foundations to the sophisticated design of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The presentation will provide an overview of local issues affecting highway design, including subsurface conditions, seismic hazard, new foundation design approaches and retrofit schemes for seismic protection of historical bridges, as well challenges in executing contracts to bring these projects to life, based on experience collected for over more than a century by Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers.