Towards life-cycle focused infrastructure maintenance for concrete bridges

Purpose - This paper aims to present approaches towards improving some specific infrastructure maintenance principles, strategies, models and practices, based on a recent study of bridge management systems in Hong Kong. A specific goal is to develop better informed and more systematic approaches to condition assessment, deterioration forecasting, and maintenance decision making over the life-cycle of the built asset. Design/methodology/approach - Improved performance prediction and decision-making approaches are developed and presented based on a research exercise to formulate a maintenance management framework for concrete bridge elements in Hong Kong. This includes for example, the presentation of decision-making approaches for optimizing inspection intervals on bridge expansion joints. Findings - The findings show that judicious integration is needed in incorporating valuable elements of, and lessons learned from, previous practice with proposed new strategies/principles, models and practices for specific scenarios. Practical implications - Based on the findings, practitioners' understandings can be deepened as regards the barriers to improving condition assessment, deterioration forecasting, and maintenance decision making over the life-cycle of the built asset. Furthermore, the results also provide useful information for developing strategies and practices to improve currently used infrastructure management systems. Originality/value - Major obstacles are overcome in developing better informed and more systematic approaches as above, and in extending current knowledge on condition assessment, performance prediction and decision-making models by utilizing more pertinent data and addressing some barriers in practical implementation.