Improving the consideration of life-cycle costs in bridge decision-making in Switzerland

Abstract

This article gives an overview of two recent research projects conducted at the Division for Maintenance and Safety of Structures (MCS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL) and summarizes the results of the 3rd International IABMAS Workshop on life-cycle cost analysis and design of civil infrastructure systems held on 24–26 March, 2003, also in Lausanne, Switzerland. The two research projects and the Workshop all had the same overarching goal — namely, to improve the consideration of life-cycle costs in bridge decision-making. The research projects investigated the methods of considering multiple limit states in the determination of cost-effective interventions and the methodologies to consider the functioning of the entire network in the determination of management strategies. The Workshop was held to focus future research in the areas of risk-based safety evaluation of structures and infrastructure-related decision-making.