The different chapters of the report are as follows: chapter ii: maintenance policy - present situation. This chapter uses information gathered from participating countries. It recalls the main objectives and aspects of maintenance and identifies the various categories of maintenance, the criteria used to warrant their inclusion and the organisational arrangements enabling a policy to be implemented. It provides some interesting information on the present rate of bridge renewal and the share of resources alloted to maintenance. Chapter iii: maintenance methods and techniques - current situation. The first part of this chapter consists of an inventory of maintenance operations and a summary table on the remedial actions on various parts of the structures. The second part reviews current situation, specialised techniques (repairing concrete bridges for example) and deals with the problems and techniques involved in maintaining major bridge components (e.g. foundations) or special structures (timber bridges, masonry or brick works). Chapter iv: maintenance policy - proposals. This chapter places bridge maintenance in its overall context and deals with the problems and aspects to be taken into account in planning and implementing a maintenance policy: organisational and management problems; and the main aspects to be taken into account: safety, economic, traffic and technical issues. The last part of the chapter deals with the influence of design, the use of data banks, training and research. Chapter v: maintenance research. Apart from identifying the main areas for research, the chapter also describes the state-of-the-art of bridge maintenance (research published or planned). Chapter vi: conclusions and recommendations. This chapter sums up the report's main findings: it is intended to assist decision-makers involved either at the technical or policy level of bridge management. The number of the abstract of the french version is IRRD 112799.
Samenvatting