Bridge Management and Life Cycle Performance in Japan

This paper presents the current status of bridge management and life cycle performance in Japan. The outline of bridge management system is illustrated and problems to be overcome are clarified. In Japan there are 150,000 bridges with spans of more than 15 meters are in use so that it requires an enormous budget to maintain them in satisfactory conditions. Furthermore, sufficient data, experienced maintenance engineers, special technologies, and good ordering system are needed. In order to develop a bridge management system, the concept of Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) has been paid attention as a promising tool for the achievement of rational maintenance programs. Several suggestions are provided to realize the rational and economic maintenance program and to develop a practical bridge management system.