Dynamic maintenance policies for civil infrastructure to minimize cost and manage safety risk

The maintenance of civil infrastructure involves not only minimizing cost, but also minimizing safety risk. The cost is certainly overwhelming and of great concern. In the year 2000 alone, the United States had almost US$31 billion in highway expenditures (Federal Highway Administration 2006). The safety risk is evident by the August 2007 I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis Minnesota, United States in which thirteen people died and approximately one hundred more were injured. No monetary value can be placed on the loss of human life, nor can any quantifiable metric be applied.