Efficient early estimates of bridge interventions: Costs, required possession times and associated failure risks

Abstract

Due to recent technological advances and the accumulation of historical information related to bridge conditions and bridge maintenance interventions, many managers are in the position to make efficient systematic early estimates of future bridge interventions. If this was possible, it would facilitate communication between different actors within the intervention planning process, e.g., asset managers, production managers, capacity managers, and network developers. Consequently, this paper proposes a methodology to efficiently and systematically make early estimates of bridge interventions, their costs, required possession times and associated risks. The methodology is used in a case study to make early estimates of the possible interventions in different planning periods for a 50m-long masonry bridge located in Switzerland. The results indicate that the methodology has the potential to provide efficient and complete overviews of possible upcoming interventions on all bridges within a bridge portfolio. Once implemented in a digital environment, the methodology is likely to provide bridge managers with an improved way to determine the timing of detailed bridge investigations by engineering offices.