ABSTRACT
In Europe, there is a large disparity from country to country regarding the way performance indicators are quantified and goals specified. The main objective of COST Action TU-1406 is to establish quality specifications for roadway bridges that could be accepted on a European basis. The application of these common specifications will be highly dependent on the changes in philosophy and operational methods (inspection, testing,…) that the new specifications will require in the future as a result of their implementation. Therefore, a discussion at a European networking level, seeking to achieve a standardized approach in this subject, will bring significant benefits. In this context, a first step would be the establishment of specific recommendations for the assessment of roadway bridges, namely, used methods for the definition and quantification of performance indicators. A set of reference time periods for this assessment action should also be presented. A second step would be the definition of standardized performance goals. Finally, a guideline for the establishment of Quality Control (QC) plans in roadway bridges would be developed. In these plans, it is emphasized the importance of advanced deterioration prediction models. Moreover, the concept of sustainable roadway bridge management, involving the evaluation of environmental, economic and social performance indicators during the whole life cycle, is also highlighted.
Before any proposal is made, it is of interest to get an overview of the existing performance indicators and performance goals used in different countries and by different highway Agencies all over Europe as well as the quality specifications for roadway bridges. To this end, a survey was developed within the COST action to gather the existing state-of-the art in Europe. This paper shows the methods used to gather the information, the results obtained and the main conclusions. The methodology is based on a deep analysis of the existing bridge management policies existing in European countries and the main performance indicators used with the objective to define a common group of quality specifications and control plans that can be assumed by all this countries. This, with the aim to manage the existing roadway infrastructure from an European and not only a country-specific perspective. Based on the presented requirements, the objectives of the COST Action TU-1406 were set as:
The main objective is to develop, for the first time in Europe, a guideline for the establishment of QC plans in roadway bridges at an European level. The Action aims to achieve the European economic and societal needs by standardizing the condition assessment and maintenance level of roadway bridges.
Moreover, it will be also analyzed the possibility of incorporating new indicators related to sustainable performance of roadway bridges.
The method to obtain the required information is to prepare a questionnaire to be answered by operators and owners of different countries. Derived from the interpretation on what is relevant or not in the existing documents and because this could be a matter of subjectivity in some way, it was decided to ask not only to reply the questions in the questionnaire, but also to up-load the relevant parts of the documents. Because the objective of the Action is to propose enhancements to the existing practice by the different owners, it was decided to ask for two types of documents: operator documents (actually in use by the different Agencies in the form of guidelines or recommendations) and research documents, showing the recent advances in the field. As a consequence, not only the different languages used across Europe become an issue, but also the different formats of both type of documents (guideline or research oriented). A glossary of terms is formed to support the survey process containing the data related to performance indicators/goals/thresholds etc.
