ABSTRACT
Recently, the engineering community raised interest about the application of risk methodologies to highway infrastructures and in particular to bridges, due to the increased number of aging structures and the lack of economic resources. This paper reviews the most relevant bridge hazards and evaluates probabilistic risk methodologies to address some of these hazards using information contained in the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database available in the United States. A framework is developed based on combining risks from multi-hazards that would help address various scenarios. A numerical application of the proposed framework is provided for bridges belonging to the network of interstate and minor roads in the state of New Jersey. This study also highlights the difficulties that are still hindering the application of more robust probabilistic risk techniques into bridge management systems.
