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A preliminary agreement between a Russian company and an Orono-based company that would see the AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s “bridge in a backpack” technology installed in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was signed Nov. 19.
Brit Svoboda, president of Advanced Infrastructure Technology, said the signed “memorandum of understanding” is an indicator of the international popularity the technology is experiencing.
Svoboda made reference to the 20 U.S. states currently considering the technology for use in roadway infrastructure and a project in Trinidad involving the system, where construction is set to begin next month. He then referenced a banner hanging behind the speakers’ podium reading ‘Technology Bridging Nations.’
“When we started, this read ‘Technology Bridging the Nation,’” he said. “Today, you can see it reads a little differently.”
The agreement between AIT and Russian construction company Noviy Proekt, while not denoting any formalized specifics of a business plan, brings the University of Maine technology one step closer to the Sochi games.
With the help of an interpreter, Strategic Development Director for Noviy Proekt Andrey Andreev, at a press conference in the AEWC laboratory, said his company was “very impressed with the approach to developing technologies” displayed at the center and that his team was “excited about the opportunity to apply this technology in Russia.”
Noviy Proekt is the leading supplier of and a gravel to construction projects related to the Sochi games and is heading the design and survey work for Russian Railways JSC, signaling a new application for the technology. Currently, the Bridge in a Backpack system has been used to build six structures in Maine that carry pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
“Upon our arrival in Moscow, we will get down to implementing this technology in Russia,” he said.
Svoboda joked that since the agreement was penned in Russian, “I’m not quite sure what I signed,” to which Andreev quipped, “Don’t worry, everything is good.”
