Books

 

Dr. Rosignoli’s books share one particularity: they are entirely original – the first books ever written on their topic. Writing technical books takes a lot of work and passion, and dealing with unexplored topics is even harder. One has to start from scratch, investigate and illustrate the subject, find how to solve its challenges, organize hundreds of pages in a logical structure, convince a publisher that the independent non-academic research of a bridge practitioner deserves attention, and go through an accurate process of peer review.

Launched Bridges was the first book ever written on the incremental launching construction of prestressed concrete bridges. It took 15 years to write the book, during hundreds of weekends and dozens of long-haul flights, summarizing the experience gained from the design and construction of the first launched bridges in Europe. Published by ASCE Press (American Society of Civil Engineers) in 1998, the book sold out in few months. Among many nice memories of that book, Dr. Rosignoli showcases in his personal library a congratulation letter by Prof. Leonhardt – one of the most prominent bridge engineers worldwide.

Bridge Launching was published by Thomas Telford (the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, UK) four years later. The book was a substantial step forward from Launched Bridges; in addition to prestressed concrete bridges, it also deals with steel bridges and prestressed composite bridges with steel corrugated-plate webs. Bridge Launching found widespread interest worldwide, soon became the international reference in the field, and was cited in dozens of researches and publications.

Dr. Rosignoli widened his professional activity and independent research to mechanized bridge construction, and he published papers on self-launching gantries, movable scaffolding systems and other types of bridge construction machines. The Scientific Committee of the IABSE (International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering) thus invited him to create the Working Group WG-6 Bridge Construction Equipment and to chair it for the 2009-2013 term.

Within his activity with WG-6, Dr. Rosignoli chaired the IABSE Seminar State-of-the-Art Bridge Deck Erection: Safe and Efficient Use of Special Equipment in Singapore in November 2010. That seminar was an incredible success – IABSE expected 20-30 registrations and gathered more than 160 people for a 2-day full immersion in modern bridge design and construction technology. Numerous papers on the topic followed in two special editions of Structural Engineering International, the IABSE journal.

The United Nations noticed the social relevance of bridge construction and the need for safety, guidance and technical culture in the field. So, in 2011 the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) invited Dr. Rosignoli to write an e-book titled Bridge Erection Machines for the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. The e-book found widespread interest worldwide, and this further encouraged deepening this research field.

So, after 32 years of professional activity and independent research in the field, Dr. Rosignoli wrote Bridge Construction Equipment for ICE Publishing (the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, UK). The book explores configurations, operations, kinematics, performance, productivity, structure-equipment interaction and industry trends for every family of special equipment used for mechanized bridge construction. Published in July 2013 and distributed worldwide, the book found such a widespread interest that in only five months it became the ICE Publishing’s best-selling title in 2013.

Much had been done in the field of bridge launching since 2002, and Bridge Launching required updating in many aspects. So, in 2014 Dr. Rosignoli rewrote the book for ICE Publishing (the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, UK). The book increased in size by one-third. In addition to Dr. Rosignoli’s hands-on work experience on 34 launched bridges, he consulted more than 300 publications for this brand-new book. Bridge Launching, 2nd Edition provides state-of-the-art coverage of the design and construction of launched bridges made of steel, prestressed concrete, and prestressed composite construction with steel corrugated-plate webs. In addition to incremental launching, the book covers deck rotation, jacking, skidding, and the launch of single spans, bowstring arches and cable-supported decks.

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