Condition Assessment by Visual Inspection for a Bridge Management System

Abstract

The development of a reliable bridge management system (BMS) constitutes a formidable engineering challenge due to both the multiobjective nature of the task and the large amount of information to be considered in formulating the required automated judgments. This article deals with a procedure for bridge condition assessment by visual inspection developed during the planning and preliminary design of the BMS for the public railway networks in Italy. The main modules adopted in the procedure are: bridge inventory, computer‐aided visual inspection, automated defect catalog, and priority‐ranking procedure. The probabilistic models used to calibrate the condition evaluation algorithm are discussed. Different levels of deficiency have been individuated for each class of bridge structure belonging to the managed stock. The procedure allows comparison and relative ranking of deficiency conditions across different types of bridge structures. The results of a visual inspection campaign conducted for a set of bridges with different structural characteristics are reported and evaluated within the framework of the developed BMS.

Analysis of bridge condition on state road network in Slovenia

“…Several authors who addressed similar topics, e.g. [1,7,11,12] emphasized that field inspections would yield higher quality data if assessors a) had regular training, b) used uniform procedures for the implementation of inspections, and c) periodically compared results to unify condition rating values for the same extents and intensities of damage. To validate the reliability of results, occasional special inspections should be introduced as an additional quality control measure.…”

“…Although the assessors are trained to detect, classify, and evaluate the observed damage in a unified manner, ad hoc trial comparative assessments carried out simultaneously on the same structure by several assessors showed, in some cases, significant discrepancies in recorded condition ratings. This occurrence, which leads to several inconsistencies in the collected data, was also studied by other researchers [11,12]. The first shortcoming to take into account is related to the observation that the recorded overall condition rating of the structure sometimes increases significantly, and then decreases in the next assessment, although no renovation work was recorded in the database between assessments.…”

“…Considering that costs of maintenance and repair should be kept within a limited budget [2,7,8], most developed countries have prescribed a regular routine condition assessment for bridges at predefined time intervals by using adequate methodologies [6,[9][10][11]. The majority of the existing bridge maintenance systems (BMSs) are primarily based on information obtained through visual inspections [12]. Even so, the documented ongoing experience reveals that this type of inspection is often unreliable; however, due to its simplicity and cost effectiveness, it should remain the main aid for collecting data [11].…”

Bridge inspection quality improvement using standard inspection methods

“…The majority of the existing bridge maintenance systems in the past were based primarily on information obtained through visual inspections (Gattulli & Chiaramonte, 2005). Although documented past (Phares et al, 2004) and ongoing experience (Kušar, 2014) reveals that this type of inspection is often unreliable, it will remain the main aid for collecting data due to its simplicity and cost effectiveness (Tenžera et al, 2012).…”

The Use of Knowledge Map Model in Construction Industry

“…However, the numbers of experts and senior engineers are insufficient in the area of maintenance of bridge; for that reason, how to translate tacit experience to explicit knowledge becomes a major problem in bridge maintenance (Gattulli and Chiaramonte 2005;Miyamoto et al 2000;Testa 2002;Wang and Elhag 2008).…”