ABSTRACT
Bridges are a critical part of a highway transportation system. As bridges deteriorate, inspection becomes an essential task of a transportation agency’s Bridge Management System to ensure that the structures are safe and that infrastructure renewal funds are effectively and efficiently allocated and invested. However, the current Ontario Structural Inspection Manual provides a rigid specification regarding the bridge inspection frequency: typically, two years. While this is deemed a conservative approach, it is imperative to review and enhance the current inspection strategy considering bridge type, age, and other factors that would affect the likelihood and consequences of accelerated bridge deterioration and, in the worst case, bridge failures. For this purpose, a research project was recently initiated, aiming to develop a risk-informed value of information framework to determine an optimal lifecycle inspection profile of a bridge. The paper presents a simplified version of the analysis framework. It contains a gamma process-based bridge performance deterioration model, Bayesian model updating, and value of information analysis considering both aleatory and epistemic uncertainties for age-based preventive replacement programs. Some interesting preliminary results of individual bridges are presented.
