Review of Bridge Safety, Maintenance and Management in a Life-Cycle Context by Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim

Bridges are critical infrastructure that connects people and places. They play a vital role in economic growth by enabling the movement of goods and people, which in turn boosts trade and investment. In addition, bridges improve access to jobs, education, and healthcare, which could help to reduce poverty and inequality. A study by the ASCE found that bridges create jobs and boost wages. For example, the massive Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel Expansion Project, in Virginia, US, is projected to create 28,000 new jobs and generate $4.6 billion in investments.

The condition of bridges in the US is a cause for concern. According to the ASCE, 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, which means that they are in poor condition. A number of factors have contributed to the poor condition of bridges in the US. One factor is the age of many bridges. The average age of a bridge in the US is 44 years, and many bridges were built before long-term performance and life cycle analysis were considered, even empirically. Another important factor is the lack of funding for bridge maintenance and repair, which makes life cycle planning an even more compelling strategy.

Life cycle bridge management takes a holistic approach that considers the life cycle of a bridge, from its design and construction to its eventual demolition. This approach helps to ensure that bridges are properly maintained and repaired throughout their life cycle and replaced when they reach the end of their service life.

In this book, Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim deal with the concepts and approaches toward life cycle maintenance and the management of bridges. It is divided into 10 chapters and systematically presents an educative experience on this complex topic. The core theme of the book is present throughout the book from the first page to the last, which is an excellent strategy to educate the readers on this core topic. In addition, the timing for this book could not be more perfect given the asset owners’ increased interest in systematic bridge management tools and approaches.

Chapter 1 describes the underlying mathematical methods that are needed to understand the analysis in the rest of the book. As noted previously, the brilliance of the organization is that the authors introduce the concept of life cycle performance almost immediately from the get-go. This context is never lost throughout this chapter and the book, which is quite refreshing and educative. The visuals and illustrations are crystal clear and add clarity to the write up.

Uncertainty is a tremendous challenge to deal with, and Chapter 2 provides a wealth of knowledge on this topic. The impact of inspections on the reduced uncertainty is that they provide bridge managers with more information on the current condition of their bridges, which could help them to make better decisions about maintenance and repair. In addition, the illustrations are simple and to the point when displaying all the relevant information, which is helpful to the reader.

Inspection, its frequency and depth, has an indirect but significant impact on the service life of bridges by giving the bridge managers feedback on their current conditions. Chapter 3 delves deep into the various methods of inspection and monitoring. This chapter connects the impact of monitoring the life cycle cost and discusses in detail the probabilities of detecting defects using these methods. When reading the equations throughout this chapter, it does start to seem a little tedious to constantly refer back to the list of notations at the beginning of it.

Chapter 4 moves from inspection to the next logical topic of bridge maintenance since asset owners use the inspection data to prioritize maintenance actions to extend the life of bridges. Dutifully this chapter talks about the impact of different maintenance models on the life cycle context.

The core optimization methods and the basis on which to optimize for the entire life cycle of bridges are thoroughly indulged in Chapter 5. This chapter could be considered the unifying chapter that takes concepts from the first four chapters and applies them to optimize the life cycle performance. Even if the list of notations at the beginning seems to be a clear method when organizing the arrangement of the chapters, it is important to note the preceding observation about how tiresome it is to constantly refer back to the list of notations remains valid.

Chapter 6 is a distinct and refreshing chapter where the knowledge that was presented in the first five chapters is taken and delightfully explained using illustrative examples. The icing on the cake is that many of these are from research studies on actual structures, which promotes an even deeper understanding of complex concepts. The practicality of this book is certainly exemplified in this chapter.

It follows the logical expansion of the topics presented so far by taking them to the network level from the project level. This is essential when assessing the impact of the failures and disruptive maintenance on the bridge users. In addition, the authors delve into the network level impact of the uncertainties that are based on various factors in Chapter 7, which are crucial pieces of knowledge for asset owners and operators.

Chapter 8 discusses the emerging and essential topic of the resilience of individual bridges and bridge networks during extreme events. This crucial topic is brought to the front and center in this chapter in the context of life cycle performance and uncertainty. The topics of sustainability and carbon footprint reduction are touched on as well. There is plenty of interest in the resiliency and sustainability approaches during the construction and maintenance of bridges in the engineering community, which includes the asset owners and managers. This is a brief and beautiful compilation of valuable information.

Chapter 9 discusses the effect of climate change on the service life of bridges. This builds on the previous chapter but shows the distinct effect of climate change and other factors, such as population growth over time.

In Chapter 10, Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim summarize the content of the previous nine chapters and provide valuable recommendations that could be taken as best practices toward bridge management in a life cycle context. Finally, the authors promote the development of decision-making tools and software that could help practitioners implement these concepts for bridge management. The reviewer fully agrees with this, as such tools and software would be invaluable when ensuring that bridges are properly maintained and managed throughout their life cycle.

Overall, it has been a pleasure to read and learn from this excellent book. The book reminds the reviewer of the advice “Omit needless words” in the classic book The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. Written to be concise and to the point, this book covers a vast amount of information. The organization of this book, where Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim chose to bring along the core context from the first page to the last, is an immersive way to educate the readers on this overarching topic. The context is never lost.

A minor criticism is related to the organization of the notations at the beginning of each chapter, which made referring back and forth a chore. Overall, engineering students and practitioners could gain valuable knowledge from this book since it provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research on life cycle bridge management in a compressed format. In addition, this could serve as a helpful reference book for professionals in this field.

In conclusion, the excellent quality of this book makes it an essential addition to university libraries and anyone that is interested in bridge maintenance. I would like to extend my congratulations to the editors and authors for their outstanding work.