Life-Cycle Costing Integration with Bridge Management Systems

Raid Karoumi,Mohammed Safi,Hakan Sundquist

doi:10.13189/cea.2014.020102

Raid Karoumi, Mohammed Safi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.13189/cea.2014.020102

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Abstract

Many countries are using bridge management systems (BMSs) as the main toll for the effective management of their bridges. Although many BMSs contain some forms of life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), the use of LCCA in bridge engineering is scarce and LCCA has mainly been applied to support decisions related to existing bridges. This paper discuss the need of a BMS with an integrated LCCA tool that can assist decision makers at all levels and within all phases in selecting the most cost-effective solution from an array of applicable alternatives. The paper introduces the Swedish Bridge and Tunnel Management System (BaTMan). A comprehensive LCCA implementation scheme will be illustrated, taking into account the bridge investment and management process in Sweden. The basic LCCA analysis tools as well as other helpful techniques are addressed. A real case study is presented to demonstrate the recent improvement of BaTMan particularly in the function of specifying the most-cost effective bridge repair strategy. The bridge user cost is included in the LCCA. The parameters that can influence the final decision are addressed and sensitivity analyses to study their impacts are performed.

Highlights

This paper broadly demonstrates the possible Life-cycle Cost (LCC) applications for bridges and mainly focuses on the LCC implementation to specify the most cost-effective bridge repair strategy
If there is a possibility to negotiate the initial cost of the repair in strategy (A), it might be more beneficial to Trafikverket to choose strategy (A) as the most cost-effective solution when the repair’s initial cost is less than 799 SEK/m2 instead of 1,250 SEK/m2, Figure 7
This paper has discussed the need of a bridge management systems (BMSs) withcradle-to-grave, integrated and comprehensive life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) tools that can assist decision makers at all levels and within all phases in selecting the most cost-effective alternative

Summary

Introduction

Life-cycle costing, sometime called life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), is a methodology for systematic economic evaluation of the LCC over a specified period of analysis as defined in the agreed scope (4). The use of LCCA in bridge engineering is scarce (3, 7, 5 and[14]). The missing of a comprehensive framework details the possible applications of LCCA for bridges during their entire life is a major obstacle hinder the implementation of LCCA in bridge engineering. The lack of proper LCCA techniques that satisfy the establish procurement procedures within public agencies is an obstacle hinder the use of LCCA in bridge engineering. LCCA in many BMSs has mainly been applied to support decisions related to existing bridges. This paper discusses the need of a BMS with integrated comprehensive LCC tools that can assist decision makers at all levels and within all phases in selecting the most cost-effective alternative

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