ABSTRACT
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has had a Bridge Management System (BMS) since 1982. This system has undergone several enhancements since its inception, with the most recent major one in 2008. Recent changes to bridge inspection standards in the US as well diminished confidence in the BMS results precipitated INDOT management to re-evaluate some facets of the BMS, such as the deterioration models, to ensure that the results are still dependable. In 2016, INDOT began a project to validate the current bridge models used by the BMS. The results of this project and the framework used to validate the deterioration models will be discussed. Deterioration models used by a management system should be validated on a recurring basis. A continuous validation process ensures that results produced by the models remain accurate and reliable as dependent factors change over time: inspection methods, treatment technologies, maintenance polices, traffic volumes, and composition. The model validation method established an historical analysis baseline. Results were then generated based on the actual bridge rehabilitation and maintenance work performed by INDOT, and then compared to the present day bridge condition. Variances between predicted and actual conditions were evaluated, and modifications to the bridge models were addressed. This paper will present the method INDOT used in a manner that can be adopted by other agencies who wish to validate their own deterioration models.
