Bridge Safety, Maintenance and Management in a Life-Cycle Context

Book excerpt: During the past two decades, it has been generally acknowledged that life-cycle bridge analysis can be a systematic tool to address efficient and effective bridge management under uncertainty life-cycle management at the bridge network level can lead to an improvement in the allocation of limited financial resources, ensuring the safety and functionality of the bridge network life-cycle management of bridges and bridge networks based on resilience and sustainability can improve their resistance and robustness to extreme events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and hurricanes bridge management should consider the impact of environmental conditions and climate change This book addresses important concepts and approaches developed recently on bridge safety, maintenance, and management in a life-cycle context. Bridge life-cycle performance and cost analysis, prediction, optimization, and decision making under uncertainty are discussed. The major topics include bridge safety and service life prediction; bridge inspection and structural health monitoring; bridge maintenance; life-cycle bridge and bridge network management; optimum life-cycle bridge management planning; resilience and sustainability of bridges and bridge networksunder hazards; and bridge management considering climate change. By providing practical applications of the presented concepts and approaches, this book can help students, researchers, practitioners, infrastructure owners and managers, and transportation officials to build up their knowledge of life-cycle bridge performance and cost management at bothproject level and network level under various deteriorating mechanisms, hazards and climate change effects.