Learning from incidents during bridge erection

Abstract

Bridge building is a highly uncertain endeavour that entails considerable risk, as attested to by the succession of construction-related incidents and accidents recently reported in Spain and elsewhere. While efforts are being made to improve on-site safety, many issues are still outstanding, such as the establishment of reliability requirements for the ancillary systems used. The problems that must be dealt with in everyday practice, however, are more elementary and often attributable to human error. The overall organisation of the use of bridge construction equipment is in need of improvement. Close cooperation between the bridge engineers responsible for construction planning and ancillary element suppliers is imperative, for flawed interaction between building equipment and the bridge under construction may generate structural vulnerability. External quality assurance should likewise be mandatory.

Assessment of reinforcement corrosion and concrete damage on bridges using non-destructive testing

“…However, many concrete bridges are in poor condition as soon as after 20 to 30 years of service and cannot achieve designed service life without complex and expensive repairs due to the structural and material degradation [3]. The causes of bridge deterioration and shortening of its service life are: errors and negligence during design, poor construction quality, lack of maintenance, degradation mechanism caused by aggressive environment, increasing service load and hazards, and very often a combination of several of the aforementioned causes [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Corrosion of embedded reinforcement is the most prevalent form of degradation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, especially bridges exposed to the sea and/or de-icing salts.…”

“…Moreover, under special circumstances it may lead to collapse of prestressed concrete structure caused by brittle fracture of corroded tendons [25]. Cracks and concrete damage caused by other mechanical and non-mechanical processes additionally accelerate corrosion processes and cause progressive deterioration of structures [6,7]. Visual inspection is the most used method to evaluate bridge condition and a basis for maintenance plan, but reinforcement corrosion can be visually observed only in advanced stage.…”