Best Practices for Bridge Management and Inspection

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Best Practices for Bridge Management and
Inspection

• Jeremy Shaffer, Ph.D.InspectTech Systems

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Outline

• Overall Goals/Purpose
• Bridge Inspection
• Basics and Requirements
• Details of Approaches
• Bridge Management
• Needs/Approaches
• Examples
• Utilizing technology to improve
• Conclusions
• Questions

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Goals for Bridge Inspection and Management

• Ensure optimal safety and operational capability
  in the most efficient manner.
• Inspection is used as the eyes/ears of the
  program to find and document the current
  condition including any problems
• Management utilizes the inspection data along
  with the organizations priorities to determine
  the most efficient way to ensure goals are met
  (i.e. safety, performance, capacity)

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High-Level Current State of Affairs

• Aging Infrastructure
• High Construction and Maintenance Costs
• Tighter Budgets
• Data Overload on Owners
• New Regulations
• Bigger Need Fewer Resources ?
• No room for errors or wasted efforts

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Need for Inspections

• Regulations/Laws
• New FRA requirements
• State/Intl. specific laws
• Liability
• Insurance or bond requirements
• Best Practice for Maintenance
• Much cheaper to fix problems early than later
• Sustaining Reliable Operations

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Types of Inspection

• Visual Inspections
• Primary type
• Cusory, In-Depth, Special, etc.
• Performed yearly (most locations)
• Identify overall conditions and areas for
  additional exploration
• Advanced Technology for Detailed Data
• NDE/NDT approaches
• Destructive testing
• On-going monitoring/sensors

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Inspection Requirements

• Often driven by disasters some examples related
  to highway bridges
• Silver Bridge Collapse 1967
• Mianus River Bridge Collapse 1983
• Schohaire Creek Bridge Collapse 1987
• Hoan Bridge Failure 2000
• I-35W Bridge Collapse 2007
• When disaster happens, new rules can come quickly

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Critical Parts of Inventory/Inspection

• Inventory of all Bridges/Culverts
• Need to know what is there and basic properties
• Geometric data, material information
• Drawings/Plans (with all repairs/rehabs)
• Condition data on all structures
• Current information
• Past information

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Inspection Condition Data

• Quantification via a Rating Scale
• Need to be able to compare relative conditions
  within a structure and between structures
• Subjective results via Narrative Text
• Need to be able to have descriptions indicating
  the scope and nature of the condition

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Supporting Information

• Pictures
• Digital pictures for overall inventory and every
  deficiency
• Videos
• Can be appropriate to show time based effects of
  live loads or multiple angles
• Sketches/Drawings
• Test/Sensor Results
• Boring information, Stress readings

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Level of Detail

• Level of detail of inspection data can vary
  greatly from entity to entity
• Minimum requirements can be less than 1 page per
  bridge
• Some entities collect over 20-100 pages per
  bridge.

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Level of Details

• Span by Span vs Entire Structure
• Can inspect and rate every span and pier
  individually
• Can group similar spans and rate as a group
  (exapproaches, main span, approaches)
• Entire structure as a single entity

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WMATA Inspection Program

• Structures are divided into primary sub-parts
  (Abutments/Piers, Spans, CrossBox, etc.)
• Forms are unique for the type of the
  sub-component (i.e. Steel Box Girder vs. Concrete
  Box Beam)
• Multiple inspectors work on the same bridge
  independently, rolled up to bridge summary of all
  parts.

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ExampleForm
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Component or Element Level Inspection

• Detailed Component Level track conditions and
  problems to specific main components (specific
  bearing joint, or chord)
• Element Level Quantify specific elements of the
  structures (i.e. superstructure steel) and
  specify the exact amount in different condition
  states

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Shortline Report Example
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Shortline Report Example
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Shortline Report Example
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Detailed Inspection Example(Individual Bearings)
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Importance of QA/QC

• Studies have shown results from visual
  inspections can vary significantly by inspector
• Having detailed review process is highly
  recommended to help ensure accuracy of results
  obtained
• Inaccurate results can lead to poor decisions via
  bad prioritization and/or wasted effort
• Common approach is to spot-check 5-10 of
  structures and/or critical components

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Bridge Management Basics

• Few entities have unlimited funds. Setting and
  developing priorities is an important function of
  bridge managers.
• Bridge funding must be justified against other
  priorities.
• The options available for management can be
  limited by extent and detail of current and past
  information available
• Deterioration and trade-off modeling possible
  with extensive details

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Bridge Management Basics

• Maintaining and monitoring a scheduled
  maintenance activities program for a bridge can
  significantly extend service life
• An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
  Ben Franklin
• Would you drive your car and never change the
  oil? Do we effectively do that with many bridges?

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Bridge Management

• Need a repository of all bridge data
• Easily accessible (from multiple locations)
• Searchable format to quickly find data
• All current/past data
• Tools
• Maintenance Need Prioritization
• Budgeting and Capital Planning
• Visualization via Mapping/CAD

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Risk Based Management

• Risk Based Management takes into account the
  multiple variables/objectives
• Example of two part metric
• Likelihood of Failure
• Consequence of Failure
• Can weight different factors based on importance
• i.e. Safety, Capacity, Detour length, Cost

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Individual Maintenance Needs Tied to Risk
(Example)
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Life Cycle Costing

• Important to Consider Overall Life Cycle Cost of
  decisions from design to repairs
• Often lower initial cost leads to much greater
  costs over time
• Example A slightly cheaper design may save
  20,000 initially but cost 150,000 more over a
  100 year life-cycle in greater inspection and
  maintenance costs

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Plans of Action

• Plans of Action develop a predefined series of
  actions that should be taken
• Event Based
• Floods (level exceeds certain threshold)
• Seismic (over certain magnitude)
• Time Based
• Every 5 years do an Underwater Inspection
• Every 10 years re-inventory all data

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Utilizing Software to Assist

• Inspections generate a large amount of text and
  file based data
• Ideal for software to assist in collecting and
  managing
• Allows information to be easily searchable and
  retrievable

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Benefits of Computerized Inspections

• Eliminate mistakes during the transcription
  process
• Ability to integrate in detailed manuals and
  error checks
• Easy incorporation of pictures and other
  attachments
• One-click generation of reports
• Field/Office data entry options

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Benefits of Computerized Management

• Ability to instantly retrieve all information
• Current and Past
• Text and Pictures
• Maintenance needs and actions
• Prioritize based on desired metrics/variables
• Integrated Mapping/Visualization
• Standard or ad-hoc report generation

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Many Reporting Options
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Visualization (Mapping)
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Visualization (CAD)

• Increasing use to allow for detailed location and
  easy visualizationof any problem

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CAD Details

• 3D Solid Model or 2D plan views
• Represent only the details that user cares about
• Utilize color for different layers condense to
  single color for search results
• Ability to turn on/off layers
• Information all driven off database and
  web-interface

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Many Possible Tools but Remember Purpose

• To ensure a safe and reliable infrastructure for
  customers/users.
• To protect the investment into the infrastructure
  by detecting structural problems before they
  deteriorate to the point where they create unsafe
  conditions or threaten operations.

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Conclusions

• Inspections form the foundation of a good bridge
  program
• Active management is important to the most
  efficient use of funds
• Software can significantly improve the ongoing
  management of bridge data and provide useful
  tools for engineers

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Questions