This synthesis may be useful to bridge owners and consulting engineers engaged in the design, inspection, and management of bridges with fracture-critical details, as a guide to present specifications and engineering judgment. It focuses on the inspection and maintenance of bridges with fracture-critical members (FCMs), as defined in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. The objectives of this report were to survey and identify gaps in the literature; determine practices and problems with how bridge owners define, identify, document, inspect, and manage bridges with fracture-critical details; and identify specific research needs. Among the areas examined were: inspection frequencies and procedures; methods for calculating remaining fatigue life; qualification, availability, and training of http://www.trb.org/publications/nchrp/nchrp_syn_354.pdfinspectors; cost of inspection programs; instances where inspection programs prevented failures; retrofit techniques; fabrication methods and inspections; and experience with FCM fractures and problems details. This synthesis report of the Transportation Research Board contains information obtained from a survey distributed to bridge owners and consultant inspectors (72 state, provincial, and international departments of transportation and agencies), a literature This report may be accessed by Internet users at search, and targeted interviews. Useful responses were received from 34 states and three Canadian provinces. Robert J. Connor, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, Robert Dexter, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Hussam Mahmoud, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, collected and synthesized the information and wrote the report, under the guidance of a panel of experts in the subject area. The members of the topic panel are acknowledged on the preceding page. This synthesis is an immediately useful document that records the practices that were acceptable within the limitations of the knowledge available at the time of its preparation. As progress in research and practice continues, new knowledge will be added to that now at hand. (Author/publisher)
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