Assessment Method of Structural Performance of Existing Bridges Based on Simple Inspections
By Y. Sato, T. Watanabe, H. Hashimoto and M. Kitajima
Concrete Journal, Vol.53, No.2, Feb. 2015
- Synopsis
- One of the major issues for appropriate maintenance of existing bridges is how we can rationally assess the performances of existing bridges. The authors have newly developed damage inspection and performance evaluation methods based on short-range visual observation of small and medium span concrete bridges. Under the newly developed methods, information on damage observed during inspection, such as the kind of cracks, crack width and area of concrete spalling, are related to safety and serviceability performances, where each performance is categorized into one of three grades, namely Pass. Conditional Pass, and Fail, that are assigned 1 point, 2 points, and 3 points, respectively. The total point value obtained by adding up the number of points of each member, such as girders, slabs, piers, abutments, supports and road side barriers, is defined as Index for Structural Point (ISP), and the ISP represents the structural performance level for the whole bridge. Furthermore, the ISPs for a group of bridges can be practically used as index for considering priorities of measurements.
- Keywords:
- visual observation, structural performance, evaluation, grade, Index for Structural Point
