Dagher to be recognized as 2015 White House Transportation Champion of Change
An official White House video of the Champions of Change event is available online.
Habib Dagher, founding director of the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, will be recognized as a 2015 White House Transportation Champion of Change on Oct. 13, in Washington, D.C.
The White House Champions of Change event, focused on “Innovators in Transportation for the Future,” will be hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the White House Office of Public Engagement. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx will recognize 11 of the nation’s top transportation innovators for their exemplary leadership in advancing transportation and leading change that benefits the nation’s transportation system.
Dagher is the primary inventor of the award-winning Composite Arch Bridge System known as the Bridge-In-A-BackpackTM. Dagher’s history of innovation includes being named on 24 patents with eight more pending.
The White House Champions of Change program honors Americans who are empowering and inspiring members of their communities. At the event, honorees will highlight their efforts in advancing transportation during a panel discussion. In addition, a blog post and the biography of each honoree will be featured on the White House website.
“Dr. Dagher has long been an innovative force in Maine, and we are delighted that his work is being recognized so prominently by the White House,” said Senators Susan Collins and Angus King in a joint statement. “The University of Maine continues to prove that it is a first-class research institution, and Dr. Dagher and his team at the Composites Center are exemplary of that excellence.”
“Maine has benefited in so many ways from Habib Dagher’s leadership at the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center. From Bridge-In-A- BackpackTM to the VolturnUS wind-power project, the brilliant innovations he has developed are opening many economic opportunities for the state’s future,” said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. “I’m so glad the White House is recognizing his vision, leadership and ingenuity. Congratulations to him and his team on this well-earned honor.”
“Congratulations to Dr. Habib Dagher on being recognized as a White House Transportation Champion of Change,” said Congressman Bruce Poliquin. “Dr. Dagher’s Composite Arch Bridge System, also called Bridge-In-A-BackpackTM, is the type of innovation that will help strengthen and modernize our transportation system. Again, congratulations to Dr. Dagher, and the University of Maine, on earning this terrific achievement, and I look forward to driving across one of your composite bridges in the future.”
“In his 30 years at the University of Maine, Habib has embodied the teaching, research and community engagement efforts at the heart of Maine’s research university,” said University of Maine President Susan J. Hunter. “He is an internationally recognized leader in his field addressing the needs of Maine, and his innovation has led to structural technologies that have improved transportation infrastructure, advanced economic development and saved lives. And in all these efforts, he has engaged hundreds of students — tomorrow’s workforce — and created jobs. This national honor recognizes the achievement of hundreds of UMaine collaborators, and represents the strong partnership UMaine has with businesses and communities throughout the state.”
“There is a general perception that we here in the state of Maine are at the end of the road, that we have a limited future and that we’ve just got to play the cards that we were dealt. Habib Dagher is an example of how mistaken the skeptics are with regard to Maine,” said Pete Vigue, chairman and CEO of the Cianbro Companies. “A bright future comes with a vision, a plan and a strategy to take ideas forward and make them a reality. Dr. Dagher has proven with his accomplishments that Maine’s vibrant future begins by believing that we are fully capable of creating it.”
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) nominated Dagher, noting that the composite arch bridge technology is “a wonderful example of knowledge transfer to the private sector and a valuable innovation to the transportation industry.”
ASCE also noted that, “Dr. Dagher’s innovation in an academic setting with an eye towards delivering technologies that the private sector was ready to embrace exemplifies the importance of research in creating a more inspiring and efficient transportation system.”
The Composite Arch Bridge System is a lightweight, corrosion-resistant system for short- to medium-span bridge construction using FRP composite arch tubes that start out flat and packed in a bag. The tubes are inflated and bent to any curvature over a mold and infused with a resin. The tubes can cure in three hours, resulting in a lightweight curved hollow arch twice as strong as steel, which is then filled with concrete on site. Prior to placing the concrete, a lightweight 60-foot span arch can be lifted into place by two people.
The FRP tubes serve three functions: They act as exoskeleton reinforcement for the concrete, as formwork for the concrete and as a protective layer for the concrete. The patented bridge technology saves both time and money, reduces the carbon footprint of the bridge by 30 percent compared to current technologies, and provides for up to a 100-year life.
UMaine has licensed the composite arch bridge technology to a private startup company, Advanced Infrastructure Technologies (AIT), that designs and builds the bridges. Some roadway bridges have been built in less than two weeks, including the time it takes to remove the existing structure, resulting in fewer road closures and traffic disruptions.
In 2014, the Composite Arch Bridge System was approved in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) bridge code — the first FRP composite bridge system to be approved in the U.S. bridge design code.
“This award honors over a decade of groundbreaking research by Habib and the UMaine team and highlights the importance of our continued partnership in advancing the nation’s transportation industry. We are honored to be commercializing the Composite Arch Bridge System across the globe,” said Brit Svoboda, AIT chairman and CEO.
Composite arch bridges have been installed in 18 locations in the U.S. and beyond by AIT.
Dagher said, “I am truly humbled by the White House recognition. This award goes to UMaine Composites Center faculty including Professors Bill Davids, Roberto Lopez-Anido and Eric Landis, staff, and students, as well as AIT staff who commercialized the technology including Brit Svoboda, Ken Sweeney, Larry Abatiell, John Kenerson, Tim Kenerson, Matt Pellerin, Dan Bannon, and Wendell Harriman. I’d like to also thank the Maine Department of Transportation who continues to be a great partner of the center.”
Dagher and the UMaine Composites Center have received top industry awards for the composite arch bridge technology, including the 2011 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the 2011 Engineering Excellence Awards by the American Council of Engineering Companies, and the 2010 Most Creative Product Award by the American Composites Manufacturers Association.
Under Dagher’s leadership, the UMaine Composites Center grew from an idea proposed to the National Science Foundation in 1996 to a 100,000-square-foot, world-leading research laboratory, with 180 full- and part-time employees and students, and the largest STEM-based research center at a Maine university.
Dagher has received numerous awards, including the Carnegie Foundation Maine Professor of the Year and the Distinguished Maine Professor Award. He and his team at the UMaine Composites Center have a long history of engineering innovations, including developing the VolturnUS 1:8, the first concrete and FRP floating wind turbine in the world, which became the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine in the U.S. in summer 2013.
The center worked with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center to develop the Modular Ballistic Protection System (MBPS), which turns a military tent into a “walk-in helmet” that save lives. MBPS is now an approved product of the U.S. Army and is being manufactured by two Maine-based companies. The center also worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop patented blast-and hurricane-resistant wood buildings, achieving the enhanced qualities by applying a thin FRP coating to common wood studs and sheathing panels.
Habib Dagher photograph available for download.
Contact: Josh Plourde, 207.581.2117