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News Kent Harries

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow

Kent Harries arrived at Pitt in 2004. Here, he soon won a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to investigate mechanical reinforcing bar splices. Harries didn’t know at the time how great an impact this would have on future Pitt projects.

In December 2005, a 70-ton section of Lake View Drive Bridge collapsed onto Interstate 70 in Pennsylvania’s Washington County. Harries’ expertise helped Pitt obtain a $250,000 contract to conduct structural tests on girders removed from the decommissioned bridge. Delivered on-time and under-budget, the project was deemed a great success. It also provided hands-on research experience for four graduate students and three undergraduate students from Pitt who assisted Harries at the site.

Thanks to efforts by Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Chair Radisav Vidic and the CEE faculty, PennDOT and the University subsequently reached a multiyear agreement for Pitt to serve as a center for PennDOT research. This led to the formation of the Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure.

The PennDOT agreement, together with news coverage of the Lake View Drive Bridge incident, gained Harries a reputation among reporters as a knowledgeable and quotable CEE expert. As a result, Harries was widely quoted about the August 1, 2007 collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis and the broader infrastructure crisis facing the nation.

Harries and the University of Pittsburgh were quoted and mentioned in publications around the world, including the AP and Reuters wire services; their reports were picked up by news media from Wales to New Zealand. Harries conducted interviews with papers across the United States, Canada, and even in Japan. He appeared on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and KDKA’s Sunday Report with Al Beihler (BSCE ’67), Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Transportation. Harries also was consulted by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee on issues of deteriorating infrastructure.

“My overriding goal in speaking with the media is to promote intelligent and accurate reporting,” Harries explained. “Too often, innumeracy, scientific illiteracy, or the projection of technical information into the vernacular results in incorrect reporting. An obvious example is the bridge industry’s unfortunate adoption of the term ‘structurally deficient’ when they really mean ‘not in conformance with present structural requirements.’ The industry jargon, when adopted by those outside of the industry, can lead to great misconceptions.”

Harries is the author of 54 journal articles, 44 peer-reviewed conference articles, and more than 100 technical reports. His primary research is in the application of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials for structural repair and retrofit. He is also well known for his work in the seismic design of high-rise coupled wall structures. Recently, Harries has been involved in issues of hazard mitigation using indigenous materials; he plans to travel to India in May 2008 to pursue this work. For more about his research and credentials.

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