Routine Highway Bridge Inspection Condition Documentation Accuracy and Reliability
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 9, Issue 4
Abstract
Routine inspection is the most common form of highway bridge inspection to satisfy the requirements of the National Bridge Inspection Standards. The accuracy and reliability of documentation generated during these inspections are critical to the allocation of Department of Transportation construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation resources. Routine inspections are typically completed using only the visual inspection technique and rely heavily on subjective assessments made by bridge inspectors. In light of this, and given the fact that visual inspection may have other limitations that influence its reliability, the Federal Highway Administration initiated an investigation to examine the reliability of visual inspection as it is currently applied to bridges in the United States. This paper will summarize results from this study related to the accuracy and reliability of routine inspection documentation. A number of important conclusions were developed from the experimental study. Generally, it was found that all structural condition documentation is collected with significant variability. Specifically, 95% of primary element condition ratings for individual bridge components will vary within two rating points of the average and only 68% will vary within one point. Documentation generally collected to support condition ratings also has significant variability as exemplified by the number and types of field notes and photographs taken by inspectors. With respect to the use of element-level inspections, it was found that element usage was generally consistent with the Commonly Recognized Element Guide. However, there is significant variability in the condition state assignments of those elements and in some cases the condition states are not applied correctly to particular elements.
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References
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). (1994). “Manual for condition evaluation of bridges.” Washington, D.C.
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). (1997). “Guide for commonly recognized (CoRe) structural elements.” American Assoc. of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, D.C.
Federal Highway Administration (FWHA). (1995). “Recording and Coding Guide for the Structure Inventory and Appraisal of the Nation’s Bridges.” U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington, D.C.
Moore, M. E., Phares, B. M., Graybeal, B. A., Rolander, D. D., and Washer, G. A. (2001). “Reliability of visual inspection of highway bridges.” FHWA Rep. No. FHWA-RD-01-020, FHWA, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington, D.C.
National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). (1996). Code of federal regulations, No. 23CFR650, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 238–240.
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Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 31, 2000
Accepted: Jun 14, 2002
Published online: Jun 15, 2004
Published in print: Jul 2004
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