Attendees at the International Bridge Conference, held in June at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, saw something they had never seen before: the 3,500-sq-ft main pavilion was devoted to the all-stars of the South Korean engineering and construction world. The exhibition included Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, rail and highway agencies, and governmental research laboratories.
It was only the second time in the conference's 27-year history that a country—rather than a U.S. state—received the spotlight. In 2007, when China's bridges were the focus, the conference theme was “Bridging Continents, Sharing Ideas.” At this year's event, the theme was “Bridges Without Borders.”