Inspection, Evaluation,

Rehabilitation, Maintenance
and Retrofitting of Bridges

Inspection, Evaluation, Rehabilitation,

Maintenance and Retrofitting of Bridges

Causes of Bridge Failures

floods
Scour
Wind
Earthquakes
Corrosion
Fatigue
Failure of a fracture-critical member
Over Loading
Poor Design (buckling of compression members lack of
redundancy etc)

Bridge Evaluation

Bridge Rating
Types of Bridge Rating

Bridge Inspection

A special task force to investigate the collapse of the bridges

A committee, formed at the direction of this task force

All bridges longer than 20ft were required to be described and

registered in a national database and thus the National Bridge
Inventory (NBI) was established
Several studies about the nations bridges have been published
in the last few years
A jurisdictional breakdown of these figures indicates: Out of about 275,000 interstate and state highway bridges, about
75,000 or 27 percent are substandard

Also, out of 310,000 city, country and township highway bridges, a

shocking 146,000 or 47 percent, are substandard

For preserving the safety and serviceability of such a vast

number of bridges, obvious need for a systematic inspection
and reporting system for these bridges and a program for their
maintenance and repairs

Most Common Bridges Built Type &

Classified Structurally Deficient
Bridge Type

Number built Percent of Average

1950-1987
total built year built
1950-1987

Steel stringer (SST)

Continuous steel strnger (CSST)
Timber stringer (TST)
Prestressed concrete stringer (PCST)
Reinforced concrete slab (RCSL)
Continuous reinforced conrrete slab
Prestressed concrete multiple box
Reinforced concrete stringer (RCST)
Reinforced concrete T (RCT)
Continuous reinforced concrete T
Prestressed concrete slab (PCSL)
Prestressed concrete T (PCT)
Total of 12 types
Total of all types

69,885
32,227
31,083
27,923
24,162
18,573
16,377
12,500
11,361
5827
5706
5017
260,641
296,668

24
11
10
9
8
6
5
4
4
2
2
2
88
-

1964
1967
1963
1971
1966
1967
1973
1966
1964
1963
1973
1972
-

Percent Structurall
Deficient
1950-1987 1980-1987

23
11
52
4
11
4
5
10
6
3
3
5
-

7
1
30
0
2
0
1
2
1
1
0
0
-

What is a Substandard Bridge

A substandard bridge is defined by

its functional obsolescence
A bridge is judged to be structurally
deficient it has been restricted to
light vehicles

Bridge Evaluation

Bridge Rating.

Structural deficiency of a bridge

may have resulted from several factors such as: Designs for lighter loads (e.g. H15, HS15, H20 etc)
compared to loads in use at present (e.g. HS20 or
HS25, etc)
Designs according to codes, specifications, or
stress levels that are no longer applicable
Reduction of the live load capacity as a result of
aging, deterioration, or damage to structural
members. An increase in dead load, such as that
due to a thicker new deck or a new layer of
wearing course on an old deck without removing
the old layer of wearing course, would increase the
dead load moment, with consequent decrease in
the live-load moment capacity of the bridge

Superstructure Consists of

Deck
Stringers
Floor Beam
Bearings
Truss Member

Step-by-Step Procedure for the

Rating Analysis of a Bridge

Analyze the bridge completely for the

service loads (H20, HS20, etc) i.e. determine
moments, shears, stresses, etc., in various
bridge components
Calculate the member forces (or stresses, as
required) resulting from dead loads only.
Calculate load-carrying capacity of members
based on their actual section properties and
allowable (or code-prescribed) stresses
Calculate the member capacity available to
carry live load. This quantity is simply the
difference between the quantities calculated
in steps 2 and 3

Step-by-Step Procedure for the

Rating Analysis of a Bridge
Live-load capacity =

Total member capacity (step 3)

Forces due to dead loads (step 2)

The rating factor is simply the ratio of quantities

calculated in steps 4 and 1, and may be variously
expressed as:
For bending members, such as slabs, beams, and
girders:RF =

Available moment capacity to carry live-load

Design moment due to live-load plus impact

For axially loaded members such as truss members:RF =

Stress available to carry live-load
Design stress due to live-load plus impact

Types of Bridges Ratings

Inventory Rating
Operating Rating

Bridge Posting

What is done after the rating analysis of a

deficient bridge has been performed?
Generally speaking, a sign indicating the safe
load limit is posted near the approach of
bridge.
The practice of posting safe loads
varies widely, for the value of the load limit
itself would have two values one based on
the inventory rating and the other based on the
operating rating.
Essentially, posting load
limits for a bride is a jurisdictional policy
decision to be made by the bridge owners.
Bridge posting may be made if: The legal load exceeds the inventory rating
The legal load exceeds the operating rating
Or the value of load lies in between the
inventory and the operating ratings

Bridge Rehabilitation

Many of the structurally deficient bridges

are good candidates for rehabilitation.
Experience has shown that old bridges,
when properly rehabilitated, often serve as
well as new bridges.
The two terms generally used in the
context of strengthening bridges are
rehabilitation and retrofitting.
They involve engineering solutions that
these are completely different from
routine maintenance or repair work.

Difference between Rehabilitation &

Repairs
A distinction is made between rehabilitation and repairs,

A distinction is made between rehabilitation and repairs,

depending on the scope of the work involved. The term
repairs often refers to corrective action or steps taken for
common maintenance for an otherwise functional bridge. On
the
other
hand,
the
terms
rehabilitation
implies
implementing a planned upgrade of a bridge to a desired level
of service. It generally involves significant improvements in
structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges to
enhance their load or traffic-carrying capacities, or to prolong
their service life. Common bridge repairs would include items
such as patching a portion of the deck, repairing or replacing a
damaged component of the superstructure, repairing and
cleaning frozen bearings, etc. Rehabilitation, on the other
hand, refers to, in laymans terms, giving new life to an
otherwise structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridge

Retrofitting

The
term
retrofitting
also
involves
strengthening a bridge, and therefore may
be considered simply as rehabilitation. The
difference
between
rehabilitation
and
retrofitting is often blurred, and academic at
best. The goal in both cases is to upgrade a
bridge to a desired level of service. In the
current engineering practice, however, the
seismic safety or upgrade, a task referred to
as seismic retrofit.
It involves uniquely
engineered solutions to modify dynamic
characteristics of bridge components and
member connections. The goal of a seismic
retrofit is to provide additional capacity
requirements and, through modifications, to
force the bridge to the desired behavior
during a seismic event.

There is no such thing as an everlasting bridge; all

bridges age. With aging of the nations highway
bridges, their rehabilitation has become a problem
of
significant
dimension,
which
has
been
compounded by an ever-increasing demand for
wider and heavier load-carrying vehicles.
This
development simply translates into a demand for
increasing the load-carrying capacity of bridges by
rehabilitating them. Rehabilitation of a bridge could
often be a more cost-effective alternative than its
replacement, an idea that has gained significant
importance because of dwindling revenues and
budgetary constraints. As a result, rehabilitation
work has gained significant momentum, and
increasing percentages of infrastructure budgets are
being spent on this type of work.

Rehabilitation of Bridges

Not all bridges can be rehabilitated

economically, however.
In some
cases, a bridge may be evaluated as
so deficient that its rehabilitation is
precluded
as
a
cost-effective
alternative, justifying replacement
of the entire bridge.

Rehabilitation of Superstructures

The nature and scope of work involved in

rehabilitation very widely, depending on the
nature and scope of structural deficiency of
the functional obsolescence of a bridge.
Structural strengthening techniques are
generally divided into four categories:
Addition or modification of a member or
support.
Reduction of dead load
Application of external post-tensioning
Increased bridge stiffness in either the
transverse or the longitudinal direction.

Maintenance of Bridges

A bridge is like a price of equipment in that

it shows signs of wear and tear over time.
Its endurance depends on several factors.
The original strength of its design and
materials.
The amount of strain from the traffic and
weather and maintenance.
The wear and tear caused by traffic, bridges
are always exposed to environmental
hazards such as rain, shown, floods, fire,
earthquakes, and debris accumulation.

Conclusion

Bridge rating involves structural capacity analysis

of bridges to determine their overall response to
various life loading conditions. Inventory rating
refers to the capacity rating that indicates the
load level considered safe for a bridge for an
indefinite amount of time. Operating rating is the
capacity rating that indicates the absolute
maximum load level that is save but not must be
exceeded during the service life of a bridge.
Bridge rating is required to be performed on all
bridges that do not measure up to the current
AASHTO standard.
Bridges with rating below
inventory level would be restricted to reduced
load level, and posted as such. Such bridges
would need to be rehabilitated (or retrofitted) to
provide an improved level of service.

As bridges grow older, there rehabilitation and retrofitting

becomes increasingly important.
Deterioration of
concrete, corrosion of steel, heavier life load, increase
traffic density, poor resistance of fatigue, wind and seismic
load, damage due to fire and collision, and normal wear
due to aging or some of the reason for rehabilitating or
retrofitting of a bridge. Experience with earth quake has
indicated serious inadequacies in many bridges word wide
in terms of their safety and integrity during earth quake
(Priescley and Seilble, 1994). Most of these bridges were
designed when the state of knowledge required for earth
quake resistant design was still evolving. As a result,
many bridges are now being retrofitted (or replaced) to
endure seismic forces according to the new standard.

With the growing inventory of the nations bridges,

inspection, evolution, rehabilitation, and maintenance
of bridges evolved into discipline of special
significance. Related to the life cycle cost of a bridge,
these functions now from the core of the bridge
management systems of the country.
With the
continuing monitoring and energy crisis and as
bridges continue to out performed their designed life,
rehabilitation and maintenance of bridges have
assumed new dimensions as viable money saving
alternative. With new technologies and experience,
the art of ridge repair and rehabilitation is continuing
to be enhanced with worldwide application. The topic
of bridge strengthening and rehabilitation has been
comprehensively discussed by several authors.

Inspection, Evaluation,
Rehabilitation, Maintenance
and Retrofitting of Bridges