Title: Management of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Exposed to Aggressive Environments

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Publication: CIA

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Date: 2/13/2011

Abstract:
Effective management of reinforced concrete bridges exposed to aggressive environments requires consideration of potential distress mechanisms, a method for early identification of signs, selection of remedial methods and finally revising design/construction practices to optimise the life cycle cost of bridge management. Two recent research projects funded by the CRC for Construction Innovation, based at RMIT University were aimed at developing reliability based life cycle costing method for comparing treatment options in bridge rehabilitation and developing a rule based matrix and a software tool for early detection of distress mechanisms from data collected in routine inspections. Research team analysed a number of case studies provided by the Queensland Department of Main Roads and developed a rule based matrix for detecting distress mechanisms in reinforced concrete bridges combining parameters contributing to a specific distress mechanism. These rules were further enhanced with an attached probability of occurrence of “High”, Medium or “Low” for a given combination of parameters. The paper presents the development of the software tool “BridgeDIST” which can be linked to routine inspection reports to identify bridges which may be prone to early deterioration.