Risk-Based Approach for Improving Concrete Bridges‘ Inspection Planning

Abstract

Visual inspection forms the basis of the inspection planning process for concrete bridges. The authority responsible for bridge inspection maintains a database to record past inspection results, in order to plan future inspections. It is a challenge to recognize and classify bridges that it is essential to inspect based on inherent requirements. This is further exacerbated by the limited budget available. This manuscript describes a methodology for classifying bridges based on risk of potential failure and distributing the annual inspection budget for carrying out inspections on bridges accordingly. The absence of such a methodology allocation of resources for bridge inspection without real need. For example, on some occasions it is not necessary to inspect certain bridges on a time basis. Hence, this study focuses on developing an inspection-planning approach based on the actual and predicted condition (i.e. based on the database of past inspection data). It enables the bridges to be classified into different categories, based on the risk of potential failures. This enables the effective distribution of annual budgets among the bridges, avoiding unnecessary inspection that incurs pointless inspection costs.