Present condition of highway bridges in Vietnam: an analysis of current failure modes and their main causes

Abstract

This paper reports on research conducted to evaluate the current status of highway bridges in Vietnam. The adopted approach included literature reviews to identify common failure modes and causes, together with site inspections to ascertain their validity. Interviews were also conducted with the various stakeholders to further understand the current condition of the inspected bridges. Results show an overall picture of existing bridges in poor physical condition, thus providing poor service to users. Defects that have previously been identified in the literature include corrosion, settlement, fatigue damage, obsolescence, scouring and aging. New problems identified were human invasions and missing elements. Previous literature identifies traffic overload and jams, collision, adverse environmental conditions and poor maintenance as causes for these problems. Additionally, this paper considers war, improper data retention and other country-specific causes. The authors suggest that maintenance efforts should be prioritized to remedy and eliminate serious failures. Properly trained maintenance crews need to be established and further research carried out to establish adequate bridge maintenance systems.