RISK-BASED APPROACHES TO ECONOMIC APPRAISAL, LOAD ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF BRIDGES: A REVIEW

The paper reviews the importance and procedures involved in adopting risk-based approaches for three main activities related to bridge management; namely economic appraisal, load assessment and inspection/maintenance. Uncertainties are introduced when appraising cost-effective construction and maintenance options using whole life costing. To improve the validity of this exercise, uncertainties have to be dealt with using risk-based evaluation methods. The procedure for a risk-based economic evaluation is illustrated through an example. Load assessments are carried out when assessing the capacity of the bridge to withstand vehicular loads. As an upgrade to the present safety factor method adopted by the assessment codes, a reliability based method is discussed. When assessing the bridges using reliability methods, component reliability can be evaluated by simulation methods. An application of the simulation method to evaluate the capacity of a simple beam is given. Planning the inspection/maintenance requirements is normally based on past experience and engineering judgement. There is a case for using risk-based methods to devise the inspection/maintenance strategies. Recent developments in this area are reviewed and the main activities involved in the overall practice are outlined. (A)

• Corporate Authors:

  TRL

  Crowthorne House, Nine Mile Ride
  Wokingham, Berkshire  United Kingdom  RG40 3GA
• Authors:
  • RUBAKANTHA, R S
  • VASSIE, P R
  • PARKE, GAR
• Publication Date: 1996

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 9 p.
• Serial:
  • TRL PUBLISHED ARTICLE PA 3171/96
  • Publisher: TRL

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bearing capacity; Bridge management systems; Bridges; Durability; Economic efficiency; Evaluation and assessment; Maintenance; Planning; Surveillance
• ITRD Terms: 3085: Bearing capacity; 3455: Bridge; 3409: Bridge management system; 8525: Conference; 224: Cost; 226: Cost benefit analysis; 5910: Durability; 237: Economic efficiency; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 5567: Load; 3847: Maintenance; 143: Planning; 9150: Risk; 9101: Surveillance
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Economics; Maintenance and Preservation; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00725384
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Sep 26 1996 12:00AM