Bridge Management Developments: Executive Summary Report

摘要

Executive summaries are presented of two studies to develop components of a bridge management system. In the first, a bridge management analysis method considering owner costs and user costs was developed to determine the optimum improvement action and time for each individual bridge in a system under various level of service goals. A computer program incorporating parameters and relationships of bridge ownership and user costs was created to analyze North Carolina bridges as an example. Based on the optimum improvement alternative selected for each individual bridge, the future funding needs, bridge conditions, load capacity, and bridge level of service deficiencies were predicted under different combinations of maintenance condition level of service goals and user level of service goals. The second study deals with the problem of identifying optimal maintenance levels of service for bridge maintenance activities. A systematic, objective methodology and a non-linear optimization program was utilized to structure and analyze a bridge maintenance model. A working group from the North Carolina Department of Transportation Bridge Maintenance Unit provided resource data and value assessments used in the analysis.