THURSDAY, November 19, 2026
11:30 AM : Social
11:45 AM : Lunch
12:00 PM : Presentation Program
1:00 PM : Event Ends
Amenities Hall, 3700 W Sam Houston Pkwy S, Houston, TX 77042
Tel: +1 713 266 6900
Topic: “Nothing Fits”: Putting a 100-Ton Crane on a Sixteen-Foot Dam Bridge (1.0 PDH)
Presenter: Ashish Patel, PE.
Abstract:
A 1975 spillway service bridge at the Brazos River Authority’s Sterling C. Robertson Dam: 16 feet between curbs, three prestressed girders, and a ten-ton bulkhead that has to come out of the water once a year. The crane industry’s verdict was consistent — nothing fits — and the bridge engineer retained to check the two candidate cranes agreed. LAN was asked to find one crane. It found three.
This is the story of what changed when a structural team treated the crane as part of the structure instead of a question for someone else: a load chart read for what it actually certifies, a witnessed load test in place of an inherited assumption, a deck that governed where the girders did not, and two crane manufacturers who — asked precisely and shown the bridge — certified configurations that appear in no brochure. It ends in October 2026 with the bulkheads in the air, exactly as drawn.
The published “no” is the edge of someone’s chart, not of physics.
Bio:
Ashish Patel, P.E. is a Senior Associate and Team Leader at Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN) in Houston, with 23 years of structural engineering experience that runs from the analysis of satellite structures, through ferry transfer spans articulated like a human hand, to the cranes on a dam bridge at the center of this presentation.
His practice spans new design and the evaluation of existing structures across water and wastewater infrastructure, transportation, and commercial and industrial work: levees, dams, erosion-control and scour-protection structures; utility, vehicular, and railroad bridges; pavements; port, intermodal, and marine facilities from container-yard structures to docks, bulkhead walls, fenders, and mooring systems; and commercial buildings, manufacturing facilities, and data centers. He applies the same first-principles approach to condition assessments, non-destructive and partially destructive testing, forensic engineering, and resiliency retrofits.
A licensed Professional Engineer in Texas and an active SEAoT member and chapter presenter, Ashish advocates for structural engineers who take the helm of the whole problem rather than their slice of it
REGISTRATION NOTE:
Please register to save your place, then visit Houston Chapter Payments, select the appropriate option, and click "Buy Now".
Registration closes 24 hours before the meeting. Walk-in registration accepted if seats/plates available.
