Widening of the Elche de la Sierra Arch Bridge, Spain

摘要

It is neither economically feasible nor is there any technical justification to replace all the bridges that have reached the end of their design working life, or in which structural damage or anomalies have been observed. Also due to evolution of road traffic over the time, the traffic load carried by existing bridges is usually higher today than what it used to be when they were built. At the same time safety requirements for structures in general are becoming more and more demanding. Recent structural standards have grown less tolerant to the possibility of damage to structures. In other words, the level of acceptable risk has been lowered. For all these reasons, the question whether existing structures are suitable for present and future service conditions or not is of increasing importance to the concerned authorities.