ABSTRACT
Since 2017 a numbers of fatigue cracks, at approximately 160 locations, has been observed in the orthotropic steel deck of the New Little Belt Suspension Bridge in Denmark. The bridge was in 2017, 47 years old, and this was the first time to observe fatigue cracks in the steel deck of the bridge girder. For a bridge owner this can be a crucial observation, as it is well known that repair of fatigue cracks in orthotropic steel decks can be difficult to repair in a proper way and the repairs are normally costly. More to that it is difficult to foresee how this will develop, as the kilometres of welds and number of fatigue prone details are enormous. Despite the difficulties and uncertainties, the bridge owner needs to consider the related crack repair costs in budgeting of the O&M costs in the remaining lifetime of the bridge.
