Abstract
Transportation and other infrastructure systems, particularly in dense urban regions, are intertwined, interdependent, multi-scale, multi-domain and complex, and their behavior cannot be predicted even when element behaviors are known. Such systems should be managed just like financial assets, leveraging measurement-based, objective and reliable metrics for documenting their value, performance and condition, and based on their lifecycle and disutility risk for each distinct limit-states of performance as discussed in the following. In this paper writers attempt to offer a perspective for asset management of civil infrastructures with a focus on highway bridges and describe the tools that are considered necessary for rectifying the current shortcomings mainly arising from subjective and incomplete performance and condition evaluation practice. The adoption of sensing systems, which allows measurements of displacement, acceleration, strain, tilt and that can be collected wirelessly, has the potential of providing objective metrics needed for optimal asset management. The authors however caution that such a transition (from asset management based on visual inspection to data-driven asset management based on objective metrics) could be truly achieved only if combined with the proper training of a new generation of infrastructure inspectors and stakeholders. The paper attempts to provide a roadmap to achieve such a transition in asset management and describes the critical concepts that should be incorporated in training a new generation of civil engineers in charge of maintaining our transportation assets.
Highlights
It is important to assert that the discussions in this paper are focused on the broader problem of technology leveraging for asset management in general and highway bridge asset management in the US in particular
The discussions offered in this white paper are intended to start a conversation on making infrastructure asset management decisions in general and for bridges and other highway structures in particular, based on objective data on structural performance and condition based on objective indices measured in the field
We cannot eliminate visual bridge inspections that are conducted based on NBIS (National Bridge Inspection Standards) every 2 years, but we may make them more effective by leveraging technology and even extend the inspection interval to 5 years as it is in EU and the Far East for many common bridges
Summary
Infrastructures, such as transportation, water, power, fuel and communication are complex, multi-scale and multi-domain systems (with natural-human-engineered elements) providing critical services. They are key for the livability, sustainability and resilience of our communities. Infrastructures in the US may fall under public, semi-public, private or hybrid (public-private partnership, PPP) ownership mainly based on history, policy and financing mechanisms. They are operated and preserved with many possible organizational constructs that are influenced by their financing and revenue mechanisms (Figure 1). Many local governments prefer to defer maintenance and wait until assets require major rehabilitation or replacement, in which case federal funds may become available to finance most of the cost
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