RICHARD M. BARKER, PhD, PE, is Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. A consultant to contractors and design firms on bridge-related projects, he has fifty years of experience with highway bridges as a structural designer, project engineer, researcher, and teacher. He served as a subconsultant to AASHTO on maintenance of the LRFD specifications and to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on training course development for LRFD design of highway bridge substructures.

JAY A. PUCKETT, PhD, PE, is the V. O. Smith Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Department Head at the University of Wyoming, and President of Bridge Tech, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in software development for bridge engineering. With thirty years of experience in bridge research and development, he has developed software for the analysis and rating of bridge systems that is currently in use at over forty transportation agencies. Dr. Puckett is a consultant to AASHTO on their BridgeWare load rating and bridge design software. His research has involved several National Academy NCHRP projects.