Partial safety factors for assessment of existing bridges

As civil infrastructure is aging, the assessment of existing structures including bridges is becoming increasingly important. Current bridge codes have been developed for new design and are not efficient for assessment because of significant differences between these two situations. One of the main differences is the possibility to update information about an existing bridge. The paper proposes how updating can be taken into account in the context of current code safety formats such as the partial factor and LRFD formats. Different sources of information for updating including on-site inspection, proof load testing and past performance of a bridge are considered.