Future of the Madero Analysis Engine in BrR

November 28, 2023

The development of the Madero Analysis Engine included with the AASHTOWare Bridge Rating (BrR) software was funded by the USDA Forest Products Laboratory back in the 1990s. The engine was written in Fortran and provided to AASHTO in the form of a dynamic link library (.dll) file, without the source code, to serve as a plug-in analysis engine for Allowable Stress Rating (ASR) of timber bridges within BrR (formerly Virtis). Without having access to the source code, the engine is not being maintained for issues, enhanced for new capabilities and features, or kept current with the advancement of software technology. As the BrDR development migrating to the .NET 8 software development platform next year, the execution and data exchange linkage between BrR and the Madero engine will become complex to maintain as the technology gap between BrR and the Madero engine will become even more pronounced.

With the limited future of the Madero engine and the needs of the BrR user community in consideration, the Task Force made the decision to create a new analysis engine for timber bridges. The AASHTO Timber Engine for ASR and LRFR delivered with BrR 7.3 in 2022 exceeded the capabilities of the Madero engine and became the default timber engine in BrR.

During the October BrDR Task Force meeting, the necessity of having two timber engines both provided by AASHTO was discussed. The sentiment of the Task Force is to sunset the Madero engine in the near future, but a thorough evaluation of the current usage of the Madero engine is required before a decision can be made. If your agency is currently using the Madero engine, please reach out to Mark Bucci, BrDR Task Force Vice Chair, at mark.bucci@la.gov. The Task Force and ProMiles would like to hear your comments and concerns regarding sunsetting the Madero engine and switching to the AASHTO Timber Engine.