Glen Miller, PE, is a Bridge Construction Engineer at Urban with over 29 years of experience in engineering and construction management. A certified bridge safety inspector and professional engineer, Glen has successfully led multi-million-dollar bridge construction and rehabilitation projects for clients such as PennDOT, NJDOT, SEPTA, and various municipalities and agencies across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

With all the remarkable work Glen is doing on projects for Urban, we felt a Q&A would be an excellent opportunity to get to know him and his perspective better.

What initially drew you to bridge engineering and construction management, and what has kept you in the field for over two decades?

For my final internship at Drexel University, I worked for a heavy/highway general contractor. Through this experience, I began to truly understand the concept of an idea, as expressed in construction plans, being transformed into a physical and tangible reality. I became much more aware of the challenging nature of the work, including labor and equipment logistics and constraints, material lead times and deliveries, meeting established schedule milestones and completion dates, maintaining a specific budget within the contract bid price, and ensuring everyone's safety in a constantly evolving environment as work progressed.

I spent the first 17 years of my career working for three separate contractors, during which time I became fascinated with structures, steel, and concrete spanning roadways or waterways. My experience began to shift more toward bridge work, rather than roadway, and I evolved into a “bridge guy.”

My love of the outdoors and appreciation for building structures and relationships while working with others to coordinate solutions to complex problems, safely and efficiently in terms of cost and duration, have kept me in the industry and the field. 

What is a memorable challenge you have faced on a job site, and how did your team work through it?

Most recently, during the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge Rehabilitation project, a significant structural issue was discovered outside the original project scope that required immediate attention during construction. The bridge is a six-span pin-connected Pratt Truss extending 1,050 feet across the Delaware River, with a roadway width of 20 feet 6 inches. It was constructed in 1904 on piers built in 1814. The bridge is owned and operated by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC), and the work included miscellaneous structural steel repairs, blasting and painting using a three-coat system, and installation of architectural lighting. The structural issue involved a pin, 4 inches in diameter and 1 foot 6 inches long at the bottom chord of the truss, almost in the center of the second span of the bridge. The pin had suffered significant section loss and was also cracked, which affected the bridge's load capacity and required its removal and replacement.

What made this challenge especially memorable is the sensitive nature of the issue and the location, as well as the teamwork, collaboration, and coordination required to address it. A temporary support system was necessary to replace the pin; however, logistical and time constraints limited the options. After evaluating alternatives, costs, and potential impacts, such as single lane or full bridge closures, the project team, including the owner (DRJTBC), designer (GPI), contractor (Anselmi & DeCicco), and construction manager (Urban Engineers), agreed on a solution: a Localized Friction Collar Assembly.

The collar, essentially a bolted clamp with threaded rods acting as tension members, secured the surrounding structure without the need to drill into the existing steel. The assembly incorporated real-time structural monitoring, allowing the work to proceed with only a single-lane and pedestrian walkway closure during installation, bolting, and tensioning. The installation was completed in one week.

To minimize disruption to the public, the pedestrian walkway was reopened from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, supporting tourism and business between the two towns. The bridge was then closed entirely to traffic and pedestrians for 17 days to allow a mix of daytime and nighttime operations. During this period, the field crew completed the removal and replacement of the pin, including jacking and stressing the system, extracting the damaged pin, and installing the new one.

You have worked with many clients and agencies over the years. How do you approach building trust and collaboration with diverse project teams?

It all starts with putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. What are the project expectations? What is the goal? As a team, how do we get there together? With all the challenges and coordinated activities in construction, it’s rarely a smooth ride. When issues arise related to conditions, cost, and schedule impacts, there are always difficult conversations to be had with the owner, designer, or contractor.

I always approach these conversations with a focus on respecting the other point of view while keeping in mind the priority for the owner or client that you represent. How do we provide the highest quality product when faced with unexpected challenges, and how can we arrive at a mutually beneficial outcome?

In most cases, the solution requires a compromise from everyone involved. I wish I could say that the conversations end up with even compromises in terms of give and take, but more often they result in someone having to give up more than they expected. Then, regardless of which side of the compromise you landed on, it’s understood that this is a means of moving forward towards the goal.

The eventual reward is a satisfied team reflecting on a successful project, acknowledging the compromises that led to this outcome, how challenging they felt at the time, and how essential they became as the project progressed.

How do you keep large, complex projects moving forward while managing unexpected issues in the field?

Multitasking, prioritizing, and communication. These concepts have been a focus of my professional development for a long time. It has been an ongoing learning experience, and I’ve gained valuable insights from both my successes and my setbacks.

I’ve come to understand that when unexpected issues arise, the greater the impact, the more urgent it becomes to address them. Clear communication is crucial to ensure that everyone on the team understands the project's implications.

When challenges occur, multitasking is needed to keep the project moving forward while we research solutions, assess potential impacts, and determine priorities. In most cases, this involves collaboration with my project team, where we divide responsibilities, address various aspects of the problem, and decide on the best course of action to keep the project on schedule.

Looking back, what project or moment are you especially proud of and why?

I’ve been fortunate to work with numerous successful teams on a variety of different projects, including rehabilitation of seven bridges along the Blue Route (I-476), various repairs to movable bridges over the Delaware River, including the Tacony Palmyra Bridge, a double leaf bascule span, and the Burlington-Bristol Bridge, a vertical lift span.

One of the most memorable projects was the State Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River in Hamburg, PA, for PennDOT, District 5-0. The project involved the reconstruction of a historic two-lane, four-span concrete arch bridge, featuring a concrete deck with integral concrete beams, as well as the construction of a new Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall.

Demolition took place simultaneously with repairs and maintenance to the vertical and horizontal faces of the existing arches, ensuring their stability was maintained. The work required a temporary, hanging work platform and causeway for access.

This project is particularly significant to me because it presented a challenge in stabilizing and refacing the historical arches while at the same time constructing a new bridge as part of the overall work scope. The project was honored with the Associated Builders and Contractors Award of Excellence in the Heavy Construction – Infrastructure Category. Additionally, the project team received an internal company award for outstanding safety leadership, recognizing our achievement of maintaining an incident-free site.