It is well recognized that many of the concrete infrastructures in North America exhibit important deterioration which can be attributed to environmental attack and heavy traffic load. According to their load capacity rating, many of these concrete bridges should be retrofitted, or at least posted to limit heavy traffic. Meanwhile, it has become apparent that conventional analytical tools, as proposed by standards and codes, tend to underestimate bridge load capacity. The representation of a particular bridge in terms of live loads, material strength, load distribution, etc. may not be sufficiently accurate for a specific bridge. Therefore, bridge testing and monitoring have grown in popularity and have become acceptable means to follow bridge structural safety. The paper presents the structural assessment of a typical 50 years single span concrete bridge. Field tests, using trucks for static and dynamic loading, are presented. Different sensors, monitoring beam deflection and rotation, mechanical deformation, crack openings, etc., were used to better assess the load distribution, the structural rigidity and impact factor coefficient. Material samples have also been extracted from the structure and corrosion potential measurements performed to better determine material characteristics. These different experimental results were used to calibrate a representative numerical bridge model, which will be later used for structural assessment and reliability analysis.
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