Tour of Florida DOT Structures Research Center

Plan ahead! Friday, October 10, at 2:45 pm.

We have scheduled a tour of the Florida Department of Transportation's Structures Research Center, which is located in Innovation Park at 2007 East Paul Dirac Dr. (See map info below.) It is kitty-corner across the street (south east) from the Mag Lab. Plan to leave TCC right after your class gets out so we can meet at the building by 2:45.

This will be a real treat for any Civil Engineers, but my student (who works there) says it should also interest electrical and mechanical engineers because of the instrumentation and equipment used to do the tests. This facility is used to "test to failure" (engineer-speak for "break") bridges. Example: take a 60' concrete beam that would normally be part of a bridge, and measure everything that happens as they break it. We can't actually witness one being broken (that happens this week), but we should be able to see the results and how it is done.

• Example from their web site, showing I-75 bridge beam to be tested
• pdf of report about test of I-75 bridge beam

The easiest route from TCC zigzags from Pensacola to Mabry (turn at Goodwill) to Roberts Road (turn left immediately after crossing the railroad tracks) to the back entrance for Innovation Park (right at the top of the hill, just before TurboCor), then left around the circle to Pottsdamer Road. Parking is off of Pottsdamer and there is additional parking across the street and to the south.

• Follow this link to a Google Map of the area

TCC should be in the upper left corner of the page and the Research Center (marked with an A) in the lower right corner of the view if your browser display is similar to mine. I've also embedded the map below, but you can't see TCC in the smaller view of the embedded map.


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