Computer‐Based Bridge Management System for Permit Vehicle Routing

Abstract

The traffic of special overloaded trucks (special permits) over bridges may create structural problems not only in the time of crossing but also in the service life of the bridge (cracking in concrete bridges affecting their durability, fatigue in steel bridges, etc.). Therefore, the owner agency responsible for a bridge network should look carefully at the maximum loads acting on the bridges and the problems they may cause according to their actual condition. This article presents the work carried out by the authors concerning the possibility of passage permission of overload permits in the main highway network of Spain. Most of the bridges are quite new and very well documented, but also older bridges are present whose documentation is not available. The work is summarized in a bridge management system (BMS) installed on a PC. The computational model performs the structural analysis of the bridges crossed by a defined special vehicle in a quick and automatic way and compares the results with the maximum allowable actions over the bridge, the result being authorization or not of the passage. The computational models are developed for most common bridge types in the network and are of limited value for very complex structures such as cable‐stayed or suspension bridges. The BMS is now in use in the complete trunk road system in Spain. The software developed has shown its usefulness in assisting bridge engineers in the decision‐making process of permit passage.