Identifying Bridge Rehabilitation Needs Using an Analytical Method Developed for Interpretation of Visual Inspection Data

Bridge management systems generally rely on the accurate interpretation of findings determined from planned bridge inspections. Bridge inspections typically focus on the overall condition of the bridge and the condition of its components. During a recent bridge inspection with multinational team, it was observed that the overall grade of a bridge could be significantly high, even though it contains one or more failing subcomponents. Over the years, it has been observed that failure of a deteriorated component could result in catastrophic failure of bridges. The focus of this paper is to develop an analytical method to interpret the bridge inspection data in such a way that failing components can be identified with reasonable accuracy for a bridge with a good inspection grade in general. The proposed mathematical model can be used in bridge management systems and in maintenance programs for bridge owners to identify immediate rehabilitation needs. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000233. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.