Human Error–Induced Risk in Reinforced Concrete Bridge Engineering
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35, Issue 4
Abstract
Throughout the last century and in recent years, several bridge failures have taken place worldwide. Recent studies uncovered that the primary cause of these collapses was human errors in the design, construction, and operation phases. Regardless of this finding, there is still a considerable gap between this information and the known errors and the risk they represent for structural safety. Aiming for a better understanding of human errors, an identification procedure and a qualitative assessment of such errors considering risk-based indicators (probability of occurrence and consequence) was performed. Several brainstorming meetings with design and construction experts led to the identification of 49 relevant human errors, which were listed for further evaluation on a survey. Much more important than identifying and assessing these errors is identifying those that pose a greater threat to safety. Using a decision-making tool (analytical hierarchy process) to process all the information collected in the survey, the errors were ranked according to risk indicators. Furthermore, a qualitative risk assessment is performed, allowing the identification of the errors denoting higher risk for structural safety, according to experts’ opinions.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions, including (1) bridge failure database (IABSE’s Task Group 1.5 proprietary), (2) MATLAB script implementing AHP (authors proprietary), and (3) information collected with the survey (authors proprietary). Requests for the first item must be directed to IABSE. The last two items are meant to be kept confidential for further research work, publications, and surveyed experts’ data protection.
Acknowledgments
This research was developed at the University of Minho in close cooperation with the following entities: Adão da Fonseca, COST Action TU 1406, GEG, HDP, IABSE, Portuguese Infrastructures, Mota Engil, and Soares da Costa. This work was partly financed by: (1) European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE) and by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the scope of Project POCI 01 0145 FEDER 007633; (2) national funds through FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology, under Grant No. PD/BD/143003/2018 attributed to the first author; and (3) FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under Reference UIDB/04029/2020.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35 • Issue 4 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 15, 2020
Accepted: Feb 2, 2021
Published online: May 12, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 12, 2021
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