Registrations
Structural Engineer in California and Washington
Civil Engineer in California and Washington
Academic Achievements
M.S., 1973, Structural Engineering, Calif. State University, Sacramento
B.S., 1968, Civil Engineering, San Jose State College (with honors)
Awards
1998 - Applied Technology Council Award of Excellence for
Extraordinary Achievement in Seismic Design and Retrofit of Bridges
Professional Experience
Bridge Design and Retrofitting
Mr. Nutt has 39 years of bridge design and retrofitting experience and is renowned for his work in the field of seismic design and retrofit criteria development.
As a member of the design team for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Project (Skyway portion), Mr. Nutt is designer of record for the foundation, which consists of 2.5-meter diameter “cast-in-steel-shell” batter piles. He assisted with the design of the steel pile cap, reinforced concrete pier inspection casings, expansion joint hinges, and steel transition span all of which were designed to withstand a large seismic event with minimal damage. His work also included the development of project specific design criteria and procedures. In addition, Mr. Nutt served on the design team for the East Tie In structure, a “roll-out – roll-in” portion of the bypass structure on Yerba Buena Island. He is responsible for the design of the substructure including the skid bent system to be used for the roll-out-roll-in operation.
Mr. Nutt was also a member of the design team for the New Benicia-Martinez Bridge, a long span, segmentally constructed, prestressed lightweight concrete structure, across the Carquinez Straights in Northern California. He is the designer of record for the foundation of this bridge, which consists of 2.5-meter cast-in-drilled-hole piles with stay-in-place steel casings and 2.2-meter rock sockets. He also developed seismic design criteria and provided substructure design review for this project.
In addition to these two major projects, he has designed and/or independently checked the design of well over 100 bridges valued at over 250 million dollars for government agencies, contractors, developers, and other consultants. These included cast-in-place and precast concrete structures, as well as steel and timber bridges. Almost all of these structures were located in regions of high seismicity and required sophisticated design for earthquake resistance. Additional representative projects include:
•Southern Viaduct (R1 Line) Seismic Retrofit - Contractor Redesign
•Southern Viaduct (North) Seismic Retrofit - Contractor Redesign
•Canada Blvd. Bridge Seismic Retrofit - Designer
•South Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit - Designer
•Washington Blvd. And Palm Ave. Overcrossings Seismic Retrofit - Designer
•Salsipuedes Creek Bridge Seismic Retrofit - Designer
•Arroyo Simi Bridge and OH - Designer of Right Bridge / Checker of Left Bridge
•HOV Viaduct No. 2 (I-110) - Contractor Redesign
•Upper Oso Reservoir Bridge - Designer of Right Bridge / Checker of Left Bridge
•Oyster Point Blvd Off Ramp O.C. – Contractor Redesign
•La Cienega - Venice Outer Separation - Designer
Applied Research
Throughout his career, Mr. Nutt has played a leading role in advancing the state of practice of earthquake engineering for bridges. In addition to his work with Caltrans, the University of California, FHWA, MCEER and ATC, he was Principal Investigator/Project Manager for Applied Technology Council (Project ATC-32) to recommend new seismic design guidelines for Caltrans in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
He was a project team member on the NCHRP 12-49 project to develop a comprehensive seismic design specification for bridges for national use. This specification is compatible with the AASHTO LRFD design specifications for bridges. He was responsible for an analytical parameter study to assess the impact and guide the development of the proposed code provisions. He was an active participant in developing the new criteria and assisted the Project Manager in the overall compilation of the project interim and final reports.
As a follow-up to his pioneering work on the seismic retrofitting of bridges (ATC-6-2), Mr. Nutt is a co-author of the updated “Seismic Retrofitting Manual for Highway Structures - Bridges” being prepared for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This manual will become the standard guideline for seismic retrofitting of bridges in the United States. This manual incorporates information gathered from a five-year MCEER research project on bridge retrofitting as well as recent knowledge gained from Caltrans and other state sponsored research and from the experience from Caltrans and other state sponsored retrofitting programs.
He has also participated in several non-seismic applied research and development projects including:
•Design Specifications and Commentary for Horizontally Curved Concrete Box-Girder Highway Bridges (NCHRP 12-71), Principal Investigator
•Wheel Load Distribution on Highway Bridges (NCHRP 12-26), Project Manager
•Update AASHTO Bridge Construction Specifications (NCHRP 12-34), Co-Principal Investigator
•Strength Evaluation of Existing Concrete Bridges (NCHRP 10-15), Research Engineer
•Thermal Effects in Concrete Bridge Superstructures (NCHRP 12-22), Research Engineer
Bridge Construction Engineering
Mr. Nutt has also provided construction engineering services to contractors and owners. Some of his projects include:
•Construction engineering support for the skyway portion of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and Benicia-Martinez Bridge (California), Devil’s Slide Bridge (California): Galena Creek Bridge (Nevada): Broad River Bridge (South Carolina), Williamsburg Bridge (New York), Chena River Bridge (Anchorage, Alaska), Oyster Point Blvd. Off-ramp (San Francisco), Henness Pass Road Bridge (Sierra County, CA) and Maumee River Bridge (Toledo, OH) among others.
•A special concrete shoring system for a major bridge contractor to be used to perform seismic retrofitting of the “double-decker” Southern Freeway (I-280) viaduct that involved column removal and replacement while the structure was under traffic.
•Design charts for use with three different bridge falsework shoring systems. This work involved the use of test results and parameter studies using 3-D structural analysis.
•Engineering investigation of the unplanned collapse during demolition of the old Chili Bar Bridge on the South Fork of the American River in California. Was an expert witness for the demolition contractor in litigation related to this event.
•Provided construction administration and inspection for the repair of the Twin Cities Road Bridge in Sacramento County, California. This was a two span steel through truss moveable swing bridge that was badly damaged due to a truck collision. Critical steel truss members required replacement and/or flame straightening that necessitated the use of an innovative temporary support system.
Employment History
While a Senior Structural Engineer with Louis Berger International from 1989 to 1990, Mr. Nutt was the Structural Group Leader for USAID Philippine Rural Infrastructure Fund Project. Responsible for planning and design of 55 bridges and numerous structures on 500 km of road and 18 rural feeder ports located throughout the Republic of the Philippines. This required the development of seismic design criteria, standard plans and standard specifications in addition to PS&E for the specific projects, all of which were completed within a very tight time frame.
With Dokken Engineering from 1988 to 1989, Mr. Nutt was a Senior Engineer where he designed and checked the design of several California bridges. Projects included a bridge over the South Fork of the Eel River, the Pajaro Bridge, the Burns Creek and Pico Creek Bridges , portions of the elevated structures for the Los Angeles light rail system, and bridges within I-61/70 Interchange in Pomona. The Burns and Pico Bridge projects are both located on California Highway 1 in very environmentally sensitive areas.
Mr. Nutt served as Vice President and Project Engineer for Imbsen & Associates from 1977 to 1988. In this capacity he participated in several applied research and development projects besides those mentioned above, including:
•Earthquake Resistant Bridge Bearings
•Numerous Seismic Design Workshops
•Seismic Design Guidelines for Highway Bridges (ATC-6).
From 1984 to 1985, Mr. Nutt was a Senior Seismologist for the California Division of Mines and Geology, Office of Strong-Motion Studies where he identified target structures and planned the placement of earthquake sensors within selected buildings and lifeline structures throughout the state. He evaluated records obtained from instrumented structures during earthquakes and assisted in report preparation to disseminate strong-motion data to the professional community.
As Technical Director with the Applied Technology Council from 1981 to 1984, Mr. Nutt played a key role in the following two projects besides ATC-6-2, which developed criteria and methodology incorporating a broad spectrum of engineering opinion:
•Earthquake Damage Evaluation Data for California (ATC-13)
•Evaluating the Seismic Resistance of Existing Buildings (ATC-14)
Prior to this, Mr. Nutt served as Chief Design Engineer for Kern County Department of Public Works for one year, Bridge Engineer for Monterey County Department of Public Works for three years and Assistant Bridge Engineer for California Division of Highways (Bridge Department) for five years.
