Timber bridges provide an economical alternative to concrete and steel structures, particularly in rural areas with light to moderate vehicle traffic. Wooden components of these bridges are treated with chromated copper arsenate type C (CCA), pentachlorophenol, or creosote to prolong the life of the structure from a few years to many decades. This results in reduced transportation infrastructure costs and increased public safety. However, the preservative used to treat the wooden components in timber bridges is lost to the environment in small amounts over time. This report describes the concentration of wood preservatives lost to adjacent environments and the biological response to these preservatives as environmental contaminants. Six bridges from various states were examined for risk assessment: two creosote treated bridges, two pentachlorophenol-treated bridges, and two CCA-treated bridges. In all cases, the largest bridges located in biologically active environments associated with slow-flowing water were selected to represent worst-case analyses. Sediment and water column concentrations of preservative were analyzed upstream from, under, and downstream from each bridge. The observed levels of contaminant were compared with available regulatory standards or benchmarks and with the quantitative description of the aquatic invertebrate community sampled from vegetation and sediments. Pentachlorophenol- and creosote-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were not observed in the water near any of the selected bridges. However, low levels of PAHs were observed in the sediments under and immediately downstream from these bridges. Pentachlorophenol concentrations did not approach toxicological benchmarks. Sediment concentrations of naphthalene, acenaphthylene, and phenanthrene exceeded the probable effect level. Metal levels at the bridges treated with CCA were less than predicted effect levels, in spite of questionable construction practices. Adverse biological effects were not observed in the aquatic invertebrate community or laboratory bioassays conducted on water and sediments sampled at each of the bridges. Results of this study reveal the need to follow the construction information found in Best Management Practices for the Use of Treated Wood In Aquatic Environments published by Western Wood Preservers Institute. Regulatory benchmarks used in risk assessments of this type need to be indexed to local environmental conditions. The robust invertebrate communities associated with slow-moving streams over soft bottoms were not susceptible to the concentrations of PAHs that would be expected to affect more sensitive taxa, which typically are located in faster moving water over hard bottoms. Contaminants released from timber bridges into these faster systems (where more sensitive taxa are located) are significantly diluted and not found at biologically significant levels.

What can stories of magical engraved rings or prophetic inscriptions on walls tell us about how writing was perceived before print transformed the world? Writing beyond Pen and Parchment introduces readers to a Middle Ages where writing is not confined to manuscripts but is inscribed in the broader material world, in textiles and tombs, on weapons or human skin. Drawing on the work done at the Collaborative Research Centre “Material Text Cultures,” (SFB 933) this volume presents a comparative overview of how and where text-bearing artefacts appear in medieval German, Old Norse, British, French, Italian and Iberian literary traditions, and also traces the paths inscribed objects chart across multiple linguistic and cultural traditions. The volume’s focus on the raw materials and practices that shaped artefacts both mundane or fantastical in medieval narratives offers a fresh perspective on the medieval world that takes seriously the vibrancy of matter as a vital aspect of textual culture often overlooked.

Includes 47 coloured plates of uniforms.

The Temple of Glas takes the form of an elusive and suspenseful-but for that reason all the more sensational-dream vision that demands close attention to detail and the dynamic way in which the meaning of events unfolds. Seducing readers with possibilities remains what the poem does best, and that special magnetism speaks not only to the provenance and textual history of Lydgate's text but also to its literary qualities.