With the increasing number of structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges and recent catastrophic bridge failures in the united states, the need to strengthen bridge safety has become pronounced. this paper presents considerations in planning a comprehensive bridge safety assurance program, including identification of potential causes and modes of bridge failures based on review of failures, imminent failures and actual closures. as these causes and modesof failure are identified, they are prioritized in terms of their potential impact on the structures for which an agency is responsible. the paper discusses steps to develop a rating system that categorizes and ranks bridges by their relative vulnerability to the variousfailure modes. further, it presents a method of preparing initial screening lists based on characteristics of the site and structure, verifying such lists, and then categorizing them according to appropriate action-needed categories. preparation of short and long-term strategies to reduce or eliminate vulnerability of bridge failures is also discussed. this paper appears in transportation research recordno. 1290, third bridge engineering conference, march 10-13, 1991, denver, colorado, volume 1.
Samenvatting