What's New in the West Point Bridge Designer 2010

The West Point Bridge Designer 2010 is a special edition of the WPBD software, developed for the 2010 West Point Bridge Design Contest (http://bridgecontest.usma.edu). This is the only version of WPBD that can be used to enter the 2010 contest.

The user interface and functions of the West Point Bridge Designer 2010 are essentially identical to those of the the West Point Bridge Designer 2007, which preceded it. The only significant changes in WPBD 2010 are as follows:

• WPBD 2010 performs a slenderness check on all members in the structural model. As a result, designs that use very (i.e., long and thin) members are no longer permissible.

• In WPBD 2010 , the magnitudes of the two truck loading configurations have changed. The two-lane AASHTO loading is an H25 truck weighing 225 kN, and the single-lane permit loading now weighs 480 kN. Both loadings use a dynamic load allowance of 1.33. As a result of this change, it is no longer obvious which of the two load configurations is more severe.

• WPBD 2010 uses new cost factors to calculate the cost of your design. Thus the costs of bridges designed with WPBD 2010 have no comparability with the costs of bridges designed with earlier versions.

• WPBD 2010 allows for both four-character and six-character Local Contest Codes, to be used in conjunction with the West Point Bridge Design Contest (WPBDC).