Making sense of risk management for timber bridges
Effective management of timber bridges is an ongoing problem for most rural councils around Australia. There are many reasons why you need to know the strength and condition of your timber bridge stock , not the least of which is public safety. The assessment procedures developed by the Centre for Built Infrastructure Research at UTS in partnership with IPWEA provide a relatively simple, yet sophisticated method for testing timber bridges in order to quantify safe load capacity. Over 200 bridges and 380 spans have now been tested using this award-winning, innovative method. This experience has highlighted a number of different reasons you might test particular bridges in order to help you manage these critical links in the road network. The following paper presents a review of assessment techniques used for timber bridges, such as visual condition rating; desk top analysis and load testing and discusses issues such as: knowing what to use, where, and understanding limitations of each method; why and when to test; risk management and reliable load rating that is fit for purpose. Several case studies are also presented that illustrate why and when to test bridges and the benefits that can come from this type of assessment process.
-
Authors:
- Crews, K
- Conference:
- Publication Date: 2005
Language
- English
Media Info
- Pagination: 6p
- Monograph Title: The Australian small bridges conference 2005: conference proceedings: October 12-13, 2005, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bearing capacity; Bridge management systems; Case studies; Local government; Risk management; Wooden bridges
- ATRI Terms: Bridge loads; Bridge management; Bridge testing; Case study; Local government; Risk management; Timber bridge
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01387735
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: ARRB
- Files: ATRI
- Created Date: Aug 23 2012 12:22AM