No abstract

There is consensus on the importance of objectively and reliably assessing the condition and load capacity of aged bridges. Although each bridge may be considered as a unique structure, the behavior of many bridge types may be governed by only a few mechanisms and related parameters, especially if a population is constructed from standard designs. By identifying these parameters, and their variation within the population, it is possible to extend findings such as load rating obtained from a statistical sample to the entire population. Bridge type-specific strategies for load rating and condition assessment in conjunction with statistical sampling may therefore offer significant advantages for inspecting and load rating bridges sharing common materials, similar geometry and detailing, and the same critical behavior mechanisms. In this paper, the writers present their recent work on load rating of the reinforced concrete T-beam bridge population in Pennsylvania to objectively re-qualify them based on field-calibrated finite element models.