AE/CE Spring 2002 Structures Seminar Series
Wednesday April 10, 2002
The Design and Construction of the Foothills Parkway's Missing Link
Concrete Segmental Bridges
Hala Elgaaly, P.E.
Bridge Design Team Leader
Federal Highway Administration
Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division
Ms. Hala Elgaaly’s Bio:
Ms. Elgaaly has nineteen years of structural engineering experience, seventeen of which are with the Eastern
Federal Lands Highway Division (EFLHD), in the field of bridge design, rehabilitation, and construction. Ms.
Elgaaly has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan, a Masters Degree in
Structural Engineering, from the George Washington University, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the
state of Virginia. Currently, she functions as a Bridge Design Team Leader, in the FHWA’s Federal Lands
Highway National Bridge office.
Ms. Elgaaly has been directly responsible for complex structures’ finite element structural analyses, bridge
designs, bridge type selection, bridge rehabilitation, and bridge office support during the construction of
bridges. Specific bridge types which she has direct experience with are: concrete segmental, cast-in-place
concrete posttensioned box girder, AASHTO type concrete girder made continuous for live load, concrete
arches, concrete rigid frame, precast prestressed T-beam, steel girder, timber, and steel and timber truss.
Highlights of activities:
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FHWA member to the AASHTO Technical Committee for Concrete Design, T-10
A member of the AASHTO Technology Implementation Group (TIG) on Prefabricated Bridges
Serves on the FHWA High Performance Concrete (HPC) Steering Group.
Friend of TRB A2C03 Concrete Bridge Committee
Serves on the American Segmental Bridge Institute (ASBI) Board of Directors
A member of two separate ASBI Committees: the ASBI Standard Sections & the ASBI Life Cycle Cost
Analyses Committees
A member of the FHWA Segmental Concrete Bridge Virtual Team (team membership includes state
DOTs & industry)
A member of the FHWA Load and Resistance Factor Design Team
A member of the FHWA Construction and Fabrication Technology Team
Presentation Abstract:
The presentation will cover the challenges faced during the design and construction of two bridges on the
Foothills Parkway, a national parkway road traversing environmentally sensitive and steep mountainous terrain.
The original design used a precast progressive, top-down construction method. The Contractor’s actual
construction method differed from the original design and was a cast-in-place balanced cantilever segmental
construction method.