ABSTRACT
Both national and international agencies have attempted over time to implement inspection and maintenance systems to ensure an accurate assessment of bridge structures in administration. Due to the development of the road network around the world, but also due to the historical contexts, bridge inspections, assessment and maintenance strategies differ from country to country, with managed structures being maintained under different technical conditions. With the development of the transport network, budgets allocations have become unsatisfactorily, with the number of structures growing. This has increased the importance of carrying out regular inspections and maintenance work from the very first stages of the emergence and development of degradation. Thus, researchers and managers have come with the conclusion of the need to create and implement an integrated, trustworthy system responsible for providing the data needed to make the best decisions regarding the inspection, assessment and maintenance of patrimony structures. The implementation of this system leads to ensuring user safety, optimal traffic, budget allocation and efficient use of available funds. Another reason for applying an efficient bridge assessment and maintenance system is the need to estimate the strength of patrimony structures needed to calculate the current and future safety levels of the transport network. This system aims at avoiding the execution of maintenance and rehabilitation works that are not a priority for those structures, leading to high costs, delays in the delivery of goods and services, and increased waiting times in traffic.
The present paper aims to carry out a comparative critical analysis of the inspection and intervention strategies implemented in several countries in Australia and Europe, including Romania. This comparison would like to highlight the strengths of several bridge maintenance strategies and methods to provide an overview of them.
