Development and Implementation of Indicators to Assess Bridge Inspection Practices
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147, Issue 12
Abstract
All over Europe, the management of bridge integrity is carried out primarily through inspections that allow collecting information about the condition of bridges and support decisions about remedial interventions. Different approaches to bridge inspection have been developed among different states. The adoption of harmonized regulation and standards on bridge inspections at the European level would greatly benefit the efficiency of transport infrastructure. Several comparative studies have been conducted in the literature on inspection procedures in different European countries; however, most of them are incomplete due to lack of information or inaccessibility of sources. In this paper, a wide-ranging review of bridge inspection practices carried out in several European countries is provided. The novel contribution of this paper concerns the definition of a framework to classify and assess different bridge inspection procedures entailing the definition of different indicators relating to different aspects of the quality of data, specifically: completeness, timeliness, correctness related to human and technical factors, and level of data processing.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The scientific network built during COST Action TU1406 was an invaluable support for the acquisition of European national documents.
References
Amado, J. L. 2017. Overview on asset management. Brussels, Belgium: European Cooperation in Science and Technology.
Becker, S., and N. Gebbeken. 2012. “An expert system for bridge inspection.” In Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management, 1758–1763. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b12352-257.
Bennetts, J., P. J. Vardanega, C. A. Taylor, and S. R. Denton. 2016. “Bridge data—What do we collect and how do we use it?” In Proc., Int. Conf. on Smart Infrastructure and Construction, Transforming the Future of Infrastructure through Smarter Information, 531–536. London: ICE Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1680/tfitsi.61279.531.
Bień, J., M. Kużawa, M. Gładysz-Bień, and T. Kamiński. 2016. “Quality control of road bridges in Poland.” In Proc., 8th Int. Conf. on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management, Maintenance, Monitoring, Safety, Risk and Resilience of Bridges and Bridge Networks, edited by F. B. Bittencourt, 971–979. London: Taylor & Francis.
Circolare Ministero lavori pubblici. 1967. Controllo delle condizioni di stabilità delle opere d’arte stradali. Italy: Circolare Ministero lavori pubblici.
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). 2019. “Cost Action TU 1406—Repository.” Accessed February 6, 2020. https://www.tu1406.eu/file-repository.
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). 2007a. “COST 345: Procedures for assessing highway structures.” Accessed February 6, 2020. https://cost345.zag.si/Reports/COST_345_WG23.pdf.
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). 2007b. Procedures required for the assessment of highway structures—Numerical techniques for safety and serviceability assessment—Report of Working Group 4 and 5. Slovenia, Balkans: European Commission Directorate General Transport and Energy.
DLIMVG (Departement Leefmilieu en Infrastructuur Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap). 1993. Dienstorder LI 93/50 Richtlijnen voor het beheer van de kunstwerken. Brussels, Belgium: DLIMVG.
Drbohlav, M. 2014. “Prohlídky a hodnocení železobetonových mostů” [Inspection and assessment of reinforced concrete bridges]. Accessed November 18, 2019. https://www.vutbr.cz/www_base/zav_prace_soubor_verejne.php?file_id=89690&fbclid=IwAR0VYyOAJ8uw8t0bwNCO03UZDY5N1XaV8MitS5KpZvTmNaGXCtOg_h5x6fQ.
European Commission. 2013. “Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).” Accessed January 10, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/ten-t_en.
European Commission. 2018. “Discussion paper—‘State of infrastructure maintenance’.” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/34561.
Everett, T. D., P. Weykamp, H. A. Capers, W. R. Cox, T. S. Drda, L. Hummel, P. Jensen, D. A. Juntunen, T. Kimball, and G. A. Washer. 2008. “Bridge evaluation quality assurance in Europe.” Accessed May 15, 2020. https://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=860050.
Freire, L., and J. Amado. 2015. “SGOA–Sistema de gestão da conservação de obras de arte da EP–Novos desafios.” In 5as Jornadas Portuguesas de Engenharia de Estruturas, 1–16. Lisboa, Portugal: Associação de Sociedade Chinesas em Portugal.
German Institute for Norming e.V. 1999. Engineering structures in connection with roads—Inspection and test. DIN 1076. Berlin: Beuth Verlag GmbH.
Giordano, P. F., and M. P. Limongelli. 2020. “The value of structural health monitoring in seismic emergency management of bridges.” Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2020.1862251.
Gobierno de Espana. 2012. “Guia para òa reaòozacion de inspecciones principales de obras de paso en la Red de Carreteras de Estado.” Accessed September 18, 2019. https://www.fomento.gob.es/recursos_mfom/0870250.pdf.
Helmerich, R., E. Niederleithinger, D. Algernon, D. Streicher, and H. Wiggenhauser. 2008. “Bridge inspection and condition assessment in Europe.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2044 (1): 31–38. https://doi.org/10.3141/2044-04.
Highway England, Transport Scotland, Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Government, and Dept. for Infrastructure Northern Ireland. 2017. “Inspection of highway structures.” In Design manual for road and bridges. BD 63/17. Northern Ireland, UK: Highway England, Transport Scotland, Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Government, and Dept. for Infrastructure Northern Ireland.
Horta, C. S., and E. C. Lopes. 2012. “The implementation of a bridge management system in Portugal.” In Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management, Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Resilience and Sustainability, 3178–3182. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b12352-479.
Iannacone, L., P. F. Giordano, P. Gardoni, and M. P. Limongelli. 2021. “Quantifying the value of information from inspecting and monitoring engineering systems subject to gradual and shock deterioration.” Struct. Health Monit. 147592172098186. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475921720981869.
Junker, J.-C. 2017. “President Jean-Claude Junker’s state of the union address 2017.” Accessed December 10, 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_17_3165.
Kallen, M. J., and J. M. Van Noortwijk. 2006. “Statistical inference for Markov deterioration models of bridge conditions in the Netherlands.” In Proc., 3rd Int. Conf. on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management—Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Life-Cycle Performance and Cost, 535–536. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b18175-219.
Larsen, E. S., and J. Holst. 2000. “Inspection, monitoring, and priority-ranking of bridges.” In Vol. 1 of Proc., Int. Bridge Management Conf., 1–14. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Lilja, H. 2017. Finnish bridge inspection presentation. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Limongelli, M. P., E. Chatzi, M. Döhler, G. Lombaert, and E. Reynders. 2016. “Towards extraction of vibration-based damage indicators.” In Proc., 8th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring, EWSHM 2016. Bad Breisig, Germany: Nondestructive Testing.
Maroni, A., E. Tubaldi, N. Ferguson, A. Tarantino, H. McDonald, and D. Zonta. 2020. “Electromagnetic sensors for underwater scour monitoring.” Sensors 20 (15): 4096. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20154096.
MDVRR (M. dopravy výstavby a regionálneho rozvoja). 2012. Zadávane a výkon diagnostiky mostov. Bratislava, Slovak Republic: MDVRR.
MIT (Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti Consiglio Superiore dei Lavori Pubblici). 2020. Linee Guida per la classificazione e gestione del rischio, la valutazione della sicurezza ed il monitoraggio dei ponti esistenti. Rome: MIT.
Moore, M., B. M. Phares, B. Graybeal, D. Rolander, G. Washer, and J. Wiss. 2001. Reliability of visual inspection for highway bridges, Volume I: Final report. McLean, VA: Federal Highway Administration.
National Academy of Science. 2007. Vol. 100 of Bridge inspection practices. Washington, DC: National Academies of Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/14127.
Norwegian Public Road Administration. 2005. Norwegian Public Roads Administration handbook for bridge inspections. Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Public Road Administration.
Quqa, S., P. F. Giordano, M. P. Limongelli, L. Landi, and P. P. Diotallevi. 2021. “Clump interpolation error for the identification of damage using decentralized sensor networks” Smart Struct. Syst. 27 (2): 351–363. https://doi.org/10.12989/sss.2021.27.2.351.
Rijkswaterstaat Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu. 2012. Inspectiekader RWS. Hague, Netherlands: Rijkswaterstaat Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu.
Sétra. 2010a. Instruction technique pour la surveillance et l’entretien des ouvrages d’art Fascicule 0—Dispositions générales applicables à tous les ouvrages. Paris: Sétra.
Sétra. 2010b. Instruction technique pour la surveillance et l’entretien des ouvrages d’art Fascicule 1—Dossier d’ouvrage. Paris: Cerema ITM.
Sétra. 2010c. Instruction technique pour la surveillance et l’entretien des ouvrages d’art Fascicule 2—Généralités sur la surveillance. Paris: Sétra.
Sétra. 2010d. Instruction technique pour la surveillance et l’entretien des ouvrages d’art Fascicule 3—Auscultation, surveillance renforcée, haute surveillance, mesures de sécurité immédiate ou de sauvegarde. Paris: Sétra.
Swedish National Road Administration. 1996. Bridge inspection manual. Borlange, Sweden: Swedish National Road Administration.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland. 2017a. EIRSPAN bridge management system principal inspection manual. Dublin, Ireland: Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland. 2017b. EIRSPAN bridge management system routine maintenance manual. Dublin, Ireland: Transport Infrastructure Ireland.
Turksezer, Z. I., P. F. Giordano, M. P. Limongelli, and C. Iacovino. 2020. “ Inspection of roadway bridges: A comparison at European level” In Proc., 10th Int. Conf. on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2020). London: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429279119.
Verzobio, A., D. Bolognani, J. Quigley, and D. Zonta. 2021. “Quantifying the benefit of structural health monitoring: Can the value of information be negative?” Struct. Infrast. Eng. 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2021.1890139.
Wendner, R., S. Hoffmann, A. Strauss, K. Bergmeister, and R. Geier. 2008. “Inspection of bridges in Austria—Practice and outlook.” In Proc., 1st Int. Symp. on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering, 683–688. London: Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203885307.ch105.
Woodward, R., et al. 2001. Bridge management in Europe (BRIME)—Deliverable D14 final report. Paris: Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées.
Žnidarič, A., and M. Kreslin. 2012. HEROAD, holistic evaluation of road assessment-structures performance assessment. Maria Bianco, Italy: National Road Administrations.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 147 • Issue 12 • December 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 15, 2021
Accepted: Aug 4, 2021
Published online: Sep 21, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Feb 21, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
- Aiping Guo, Haiqing Zhu, Ajuan Jiang, Detection and Damage Evaluation of Hinge Joints in Hollow Slab Bridges Based on a Light-Load Field Test, Buildings, 10.3390/buildings13030699, 13, 3, (699), (2023).
- Alessandro Galdelli, Mariapaola D’Imperio, Gabriele Marchello, Adriano Mancini, Massimiliano Scaccia, Michele Sasso, Emanuele Frontoni, Ferdinando Cannella, A Novel Remote Visual Inspection System for Bridge Predictive Maintenance, Remote Sensing, 10.3390/rs14092248, 14, 9, (2248), (2022).
- Parham Nooralishahi, Gabriel Ramos, Sandra Pozzer, Clemente Ibarra-Castanedo, Fernando Lopez, Xavier P. V. Maldague, Texture Analysis to Enhance Drone-Based Multi-Modal Inspection of Structures, Drones, 10.3390/drones6120407, 6, 12, (407), (2022).
- N. Avelina, T. Chang, S. Chi, Comparative Study of Bridge Inspection Practices in Indonesia and Foreign Countries, 2022 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 10.1109/IEEM55944.2022.9989924, (0980-0984), (2022).
- Chiara Iacovino, Zehra Irem Turksezer, Pier Francesco Giordano, Maria Pina Limongelli, Comparison of Bridge Inspection Policies in terms of Data Quality, Journal of Bridge Engineering, 10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0001831, 27, 3, (2022).
- Chunhui Guo, Zhenglin Liang, A predictive Markov decision process for optimizing inspection and maintenance strategies of partially observable multi-state systems, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 10.1016/j.ress.2022.108683, 226, (108683), (2022).