【正文】
ods. – Establishment of methods for evaluating the safety and durability of existing 10 bridges and the public announcement and munication of evaluated results. – Development of method for deciding the priority ranking of repair and retrofitting of existing bridges. . New materials and technologies New highperformance materials are continually developed for bridges. Examples include highperformance steel, highperformance bearings, highductility and highstrength bolts, carbon fiber reinforced plastic sheets, carbon fiber reinforced plastic cables and so on. Among them, carbon fiber reinforced plastic sheets are used for the repair of superannuated steel girder bridges and RC slabs, and the seismic retrofitting of steel bridge piers with circular cross section. However, it seems to be very difficult to identify structural members to which these highperformance materials can be properly applied. On the other hand, various highperformance technologies are being developed for seismic design, seismic retrofitting, cost reduction, control of vibration, and so on. 3. Considerations for a bright future in steel bridge construction . Key points The following key points should be considered to enable a bright future in steel bridge construction in Japan to be realised: (1) Vicechancellor, Professor Dowling states in the February 2020 edition of Surrey Matters that “first and foremost it is people, our staff and students that will make us a worldclass university. It is essential that we are able to attract and retain the best staff and students from around the world”. Likewise, it is essential that the steel bridge industry in Japan is able to attract, train and retain better students and engineers from not only Japan but also around the world. (2) For this purpose, the maintenance of superannuated bridges, repair and strengthening of damaged bridges, and retrofitting works of existing bridges should be economically reasonable jobs, because these jobs will surely increase in the future. (3) The necessity and importance of the bridge construction and maintenance should be understood by the nation, because the bridge infrastructure is supported by the tax from the nation. (4) For this reason, existing bridges should be refreshed to mitigate the unfavourable influence of the bridges on the natural and residential environment surrounding the bridges. From now on, bridges that bring about favourable influence on the surrounding environment should be constructed. (5) Bridge construction should attract young people, in order to bee successful students and bridge engineers who will develop and support the industry in the future. (6) Bridge engineers should make the code of ethics for civil engineers promulgated by JSCE public and adhere to it, in order that the current bridge engineering industry may achieve the targets mentioned above and obtain better status in Japanese society. (7) It is necessary for bridge engineers to develop technologies applicable to not only bridges but also structures in other industries, because they can win jobs from other industries by using the technologies developed in such a way. (8) The safety of bridges, in particular against natural disaster, is still the most important central task, although the improvement and refreshment of existing bridges 11 taking account of the bridge environment is important. (9) Preservation of old bridges is also very important, so that current and future generations may understand the history and importance of bridges. . Refreshment of bridge environment To establish a desirable bridge environment, it is also important to mitigate the unfortable influence of the bridges on their surrounding environment. The most important factor in order to realize a desirable bridge environment is effective munication among the people concerning the bridge environment, such as bridge engineers, researchers, users and other relevant people to the bridge and the conservation of the natural environment, and habitants and workers near the bridges. The design, construction, and maintenance of almost all the bridges has so far been carried out considering mainly their safety, with less emphasis on munication among people until recently. In the near future, in order to create a desirable bridge environment and/or change the current bridge environment to a desirable one, it is considered that a new organization is necessary. This should offer a framework which promotes munication among the people, and hence enables stakeholders to find out valuable and useful strategies and to investigate and develop core technol