Management Path of Concrete Beam Bridge in China from the Perspective of Sustainable Development

Abstract

More and more bridges have entered the maintenance stage, which has potential collapse hazards and threatens life and property safety. More attention has been paid to the improvement of maintenance management levels during the operation period in terms of extending the service life of the bridge, but less attention has been paid to it from the perspective of the whole life cycle. One hundred and ninety examples of concrete beam bridges in China were collected, based on which the collapse characteristics and collapse causes of concrete beam bridges were analyzed. The causes of bridge collapse come from all stages of bridge life cycle, including environmental factors and human factors. Moreover, the effects of the previous phase carry over to the next. Superficially, poor maintenance management during an operation led to bridge collapse. However, the root cause may have occurred at an earlier stage. On this basis, a fuzzy interpretation structure model (FISM) for concrete beam bridge deterioration is conducted. The model can decompose the complex and messy relationship among the factors of bridge collapse into a clear, multi–level and hierarchical structure. Compared with qualitative analysis, an ISM chart can directly reflect the relationship between collapse factors, which is convenient for further analysis. Poor maintenance management during operation is the direct cause, while improper planning, imperfect standards and weak supervision in the early stage are the fundamental causes. Finally, in order to improve the sustainability of concrete beam bridges scientifically, management suggestions are put forward for the participants involved in each stage of the bridge’s life cycle.

Recommendations for Refined Preventive Maintenance Management of Concrete Bridges in China Based on Environmental Risk Zoning

“…Environmental factors have a great impact on the deterioration of bridges ( 57 ). Most of the existing studies focus on specific regions and environments, without comprehensive considerations ( 58 , 62 ).…”

“…Based on matter-element extension theory, the environmental risks to concrete bridges in various provinces were evaluated comprehensively. The comprehensive analysis of the risk assessment level is influenced by many factors ( 57 , 58 ). As a quantitative tool to describe the transformation process of attributes of things, matter-element extension can transform complex problems into the correlation between matter-element networks, thus making mathematical models closer to reality ( 59 ).…”

“…Environmental factors not only reduce the durability of concrete and steel, but also accelerate the degradation process of bridges. The influence of environmental factors on bridge structure is complex, but the existing research on environmental factors is not sufficient (57,58,62). Environmental factors such as flood, scour, earthquake, and wind, as well as temperature and freeze-thaw cycles, are usually considered in bridge degradation analysis (4,(21)(22)(23).…”

Study on optimization of inspection mechanism of concrete beam bridge

“…With the continuous improvement of China’s economic strength, infrastructure construction has been developing rapidly. In recent years, China has made important breakthroughs in the field of bridge construction technology, which also highlights the technical deficiencies of Chinese bridges in the operational stage [ 1 ]. Due to the lack of bridge maintenance and management technology, the bridge is prone to structural safety risks, which brings huge hidden dangers to people’s life safety [ 2 , 3 ].…”

“…Due to the lack of bridge maintenance and management technology, the bridge is prone to structural safety risks, which brings huge hidden dangers to people’s life safety [ 2 , 3 ]. The focus of bridge engineering in China is changing from construction to maintenance [ 1 ]. Bridge inspection is the starting point of bridge maintenance.…”