A qualitative evaluation of the U.S. timber bridge market

In-depth interviews were conducted in Mississippi, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin to investigate factors affecting the adoption of timber bridges. Five major factors were identified that may act as barriers or incentives to timber bridge adoption. These were characterized as conditions, decision-makers, demand, familiarity, and resources. Over 70 personal interviews were conducted in these 4 states to determine which factors may have the greatest impact upon timber bridge adoption. Resources, familiarity, and conditions appear to have the greatest impact. This information provided a means to estimate the realistic market size for timber in our current infrastructure for bridge construction; the timber bridge market probably will not consume more than 15 million board feet (BF) of lumber annually. This indicates that timber will remain a niche market for bridge construction.

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