Concrete Segmental Bridges February 17, 2014

Dennis Murphy
Retired, President Kiewit Engineering

If in the late 60’s there had been a lecture series at Notre Dame highlighting what might be some of the future challenges in civil engineering, surely one presentation would have addressed concrete segmental bridges.

Born from the innovative work of Eugene  Freyssinet who pioneered the principles of pretensioning and driven by the rebuilding of Europe’s infrastructure after the second world war, concrete segmental bridges  became the standard for mid to long span bridge structures.  In the last forty years in the United States concrete segmental bridge construction has definitively replaced steel girder, truss, arch as a design of choice in spans over approximately 200 feet.

Imaginative, innovative construction techniques are continuously being refined to make these artistic, elegant, efficient structures common place in the bridge industry today.

The purpose of this lecture is to give today’s undergraduate a current view of “the state of the art” of concrete segmental bridge construction. 


Dennis F. Murphy (Notre Dame Class of '71) began his career as a field engineer for Peter Kiewit Company, one of the world’s largest construction companies. He is now retired as president of Kiewit Engineering, which provides engineering, estimating, and quality assurance service for all Kiewit construction operations.A recipient of the Engineering Honor Award from the College of Engineering, Dennis serves as a member of the advisory council for the college.