Condition Assessment for Existing Reinforced Concrete Bridges

The objective of the paper is to present a practical bridge condition evaluation method for the decision making of whether a bridge should be replaced, repaired, or routinely maintained. The bridge conditions are classified into four types (i.e., First, Second, Third, and Fourth) corresponding to different required maintenance levels determined by Multilevel Fuzzy Identifying Synthetical Appraisal theory. The inspection and statistical analysis of 88 deficient reinforced concrete girder bridges in China are first introduced. Then, the bridge deficient classifications and their weight coefficients are discussed. Finally, the type of condition and the maintenance level of an existing concrete bridge are evaluated based on Multilevel Fuzzy Identifying Synthetical Appraisal theory. Results show that the proposed method is reliable and can be used in evaluating the existing bridge conditions.