William R. “Randy” Cox has been selected by the ASBI Board of Directors as the new Manager of the American Segmental Bridge Institute effective November 1, 2008. He succeeds Cliff Freyermuth, ASBI Manager since 1989 who will be returning to practice as a Consulting Engineer effective January 1, 2009. Randy will establish a new ASBI office in Austin, Texas which will function in conjunction with the current Phoenix office through a transition period ending December 31, 2008.

Randy is joining ASBI after 27 years of service with the Texas Department of Transportation’s Bridge Division where he gained experience in all areas of bridge engineering. He has served as Director of the Bridge Division and as the Texas State Bridge Engineer for the past 4 years and was responsible for the development of policy, standards, manuals, and guidelines for the design, construction, maintenance and inspection of the state’s 50,000 bridges. Throughout his career he has been active on numerous professional committees, including serving as chair of the Technical Committee for Bridge Management, Evaluation and Rehabilitation for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures.

ASBI President Ray McCabe is delighted that Randy has agreed to accept the Manager position and believes he will be a great benefit to the organization. “Having been with TxDOT for 27 years and through years of participation in AASHTO and other national organizations, Randy will be able to work with DOT’s, FHWA, and other Bridge Owners to promote the benefits of segmental construction” McCabe states.

Randy brings a wealth of segmental bridge knowledge to ASBI from his experience as a design and construction engineer on segmental bridge projects in Texas. Early during his career with TxDOT, he focused his interests on the design and construction of post-tensioned structures. In 1983 he was in charge of structural inspections for the Bear Creek Bridge which became the prototype for the San Antonio “Y” segmental bridge project. Upon his return from the field, Randy was involved with the superstructure design of the San Antonio “Y” span-by-span segmental bridge project and then provided engineering support during construction. He also provided construction engineering support for several segmental and cable stay projects, including the Veterans Memorial Bridge, a 640 ft. main span precast concrete segmental cable-stay bridge in Port Arthur, the Fred Hartman Bridge, a 1250 ft. main span cable stay bridge in Houston, the US 183 span-by-span segmental bridge in Austin, and several cast-in-place balanced cantilever segmental bridges, including the Galveston Bay Causeway Bridge near Galveston.

In 1999, Randy participated as a team member of the concrete segmen-tal bridge durability scanning tour of Europe sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration. In 2002, he directed the in-service condition inspection of 20 miles of segmental bridges in Texas. As the State Bridge Engineer, his staff has been actively involved in the design and construction of numerous segmental bridges, including 2 bridges currently under construction - the IH 10 Bridge over the Trinity River, a 450 ft. cast-in-place balanced cantilever structure and the Intercoastal Bridge at Matagorda, a 320 ft. main span cast-in-place balanced cantilever structure.

Randy is a strong advocate of the advantages of segmental bridges. “I’m excited to join ASBI at a time when there are major challenges in addressing the condition of the nation’s aging bridges, identifying new sources of transportation funding, and improving mobility in our urban areas. By selecting a segmental bridge, a community can address these issues with a structure that is aesthetic, durable, rapid to construct, and that will have low life-cycle costs. I look forward to working with the ASBI Organization and bridge owners across the nation to develop and promote solutions to solve our nation’s transportation challenges”.