Abstract
In recent times, there has been an increase in transport infrastructure failure. This increase is due to aging infrastructure, increased number of extreme weather events caused by climate change, and increased traffic loading. Accordingly, the need for planned and unplanned maintenance interventions is rising. Associated costs do not only involve direct maintenance or reconstruction costs, but also secondary effects experienced by users of the transport network as well as the environment and society in general. Infrastructure managers require tools for accurate quantification of infrastructure resilience that will enable rational adaptation investment strategies, so as to maintain high level of safety of transport networks. Through the development of a Global Safety Framework, at the core of which is a Multi-modal Network Decision Support Tool, the SAFE-10-T project (Safety of Transport Infrastructure on the TEN-T Network) is providing integrated solutions to issues related to infrastructure safety and planning. The paper presents a reliability-based whole life cycle model developed within this project enabling strategic investment decisions that maximize safety, minimize disruption, and environmental impacts and allow for the best use of limited resources. The model is applied on a case study of a bridge in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Highlights
Every year, transport infrastructure is subject to significant maintenance activities, requiring considerable monetary investment
Fatigue damage is a common issue in steel orthotropic decks, which for the current structure has been aggravated by the significant traffic growth since the bridge was designed, including increasing amounts of freight
The developed Whole Life Cycle Cost model was validated on a case study bridge in the Port of Rotterdam described in section Case Study Description
Summary
Transport infrastructure is subject to significant maintenance activities, requiring considerable monetary investment. Most of the bridges built after 1945 are reaching the end of their service life and they are generally in need of major repair or need to be upgraded to a higher functional level (FIEC, 2018). The majority of those bridges are operational today, but some of them are having serious safety problems, which was witnessed with the collapse of the Genoa bridge in Italy in August 2018. Its recent degradation and renovation plans make it an interesting object for both reliability assessment and life cycle analysis
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