Title: Remaining Service Life Assessment of Bridge Abutments Using Different Models: Comparative Study

Author(s): Abeer Al-Shammari and Mojtaba Afzali

Publication: Symposium Paper

Volume: 351

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 19-37

Keywords: corrosion; reinforced concrete structure; remaining service life

DOI: 10.14359/51734672

Date: 4/1/2022

Abstract:
The United States has over 600,000 bridges, nearly 40% of which are 50 years old or older. Additionally, over 46,000 bridge structures in the country were evaluated to be structurally deficient according to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) 2019. The average age of America’s bridges keeps increasing and many of these bridges are approaching the end of their design life. Therefore, evaluating the existing condition and predicting the remaining service life of these bridges is of vital importance to agencies making the decisions to maintain, repair, or replace bridge structures based on their present and future expected conditions. Several models are available to predict the service life of new concrete structures. However, very few models are available to estimate the remaining service life of existing concrete structures. This paper presents a comparative study between two service life prediction models (Life-365 and NCHRP report 558). The service life prediction analysis was performed on bridge substructures (two abutments, namely North Abutment and South Abutment) subjected to corrosion-induced deterioration. Constructed in 1958, this bridge is located in Northern New Jersey and was 60 years old at the time this study was conducted. Review of the existing bridge documents, visual inspection, and concrete damage survey, field sampling and testing, and lab tests were performed to evaluate the existing condition of the structure and to obtain the parameters required for analysis. A good agreement between the analysis results of Life-365 and NCHRP report 558 models was obtained.