Reliability-Based Life-Cycle Management of Highway Bridges

TLDR

Bridge management seeks to allocate limited resources to balance lifetime reliability and life‑cycle cost optimally, and its evolution from the 20th century to the present informs future directions. This paper examines the past, present, and future of life‑cycle management of highway bridges. Current bridge management systems have limitations that can be addressed with a reliability‑based approach, and further research is needed to develop better life‑cycle models and tools to quantify risks, costs, and benefits and their network interrelationships.

Abstract

The objective of bridge management is to allocate and use the limited resources to balance lifetime reliability and life-cycle cost in an optimal manner. As the 20th century has drawn to a close, it is appropriate to reflect on the birth and growth of bridge management systems, to examine where they are today, and to predict their future. In this paper, it is attempted to shed some light on the past, present, and future of life-cycle management of highway bridges. It is shown that current bridge management systems have limitations and that these limitations can be overcome by using a reliability-based approach. It is concluded that additional research is required to develop better life-cycle models and tools to quantify the risks, costs, and benefits associated with highway bridges as well as their interrelationships in highway networks.