The importance of bridge repair versus new bridge construction has risen in recent decades due to high deterioration rates that have been observed in these structures. Budgets both for building new bridges and keeping the existing ones are always limited. To help rational decision-making, bridge management systems are presently being implemented by bridge authorities in several countries. The prototype of an expert system for concrete bridge management is presented in this paper, with its functionality relying on two modules. The inspection module relies on a periodic acquisition of field information complemented by a knowledge-based interactive system, BRIDGE-1, To optimize management strategies at the headquarters, the BRIDGE-2 module was implemented, including three submodules: inspection strategy, maintenance and repair. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
