State-Of-The Art Practices in Bridge Inspection

Authors: Salam R. Yaghi, Saleh Abu Dabous

Abstract:

Government reports and published research have flagged and brought to public attention the deteriorating condition of a large percentage of bridges in Canada and the United States. With the increasing number of deteriorated bridges in the US, Canada, and around the globe, condition assessment techniques of concrete bridges are evolving. Investigation for bridges’ defects such as cracks, spalls, and delamination and their level of severity are the main objectives of condition assessment. Inspection and rehabilitation programs are being implemented to monitor and maintain deteriorated bridge infrastructure. This paper highlights the state-of-the art of current practices being performed for concrete bridge inspection. The information is gathered from the literature and through a distributed questionnaire. The current practices in concrete bridge inspection rely on the use of hummer sounding and chain dragging tests. Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques are not being utilized fully in the process. Nonetheless, they are being partially utilized by the recommendation of the bridge inspector after conducting visual inspection. Lanes are usually closed during the performance of visual inspection and bridge inspection in general.

Keywords: Bridge Inspection, Condition Assessment, questionnaire, Non-Destructive Testing.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1109619

References:

[1] National Bridge Inventory (NBI). “Deficient bridges by state and highway system 2011”. in U.S. Department of Transportation, 2012.
[2] Transport Canada. “Transportation in Canada 2011 – comprehensive review.” in Ottawa, ON, Canada: Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2012.
[3] Ahlborn, T., Shuchman, R., Sutter, L., Brooks, C., Harris, D., Burns, J., ... Oats, R. “An evaluation of commercially available remote sensors for assessing highway bridge condition.” in Michigan Tech, 2010.
[4] FHWA. “Bridge inspector's reference manual.” in U.S. Department of Transportation, 2012.
[5] Vaghefi, K., Oats, R., Harris, D., Ahlborn, T., Brooks, C., Endsley, K. A., ... Dobson, R. “Evaluation of commercially available remote sensors for highway bridge condition assessment.” in Journal of Bridge Engineering, 2012, 17(6), 886-895.
[6] Ministry of Transportation, Ontario. “Ontario structures inspection manual.” in Ontario, Canada: Ontario Ministry of transportation, 2000.
[7] Transportation Research Board. “NCHRP synthesis 375: Bridge inspection practices.” in Washington, DC: NCHRP: National Cooperative Highway Research Program, 2007.
[8] Gucunski, N., Imani, A., & Romer, F. “Nondestructive testing to identify concrete bridge deck deterioration” in Transportation Research Board, 2013.
[9] Hellier, C. “Handbook of nondestructive evaluation” in McGraw-Hill New York, 2001.
[10] ASTM C876-91. “Standard test method for half-cell potentials of uncoated reinforcing steel in concrete.” in American Society for Testing and Materials West Conshohocken, 1999.
[11] Rhazi, J. “Half-cell potential test from the upper-side and the lower-side of reinforced cconcrete slabs: A comparative study.” in NDTCE’09, Non-Destructive Testing in Civil Engineering, Nantes, France, 2009.
[12] Lin, J. M., & Sansalone, M. “Impact-echo studies of interfacial bond quality in concrete: Part l-effects of unbonded fraction of area.” in ACI Materials Journal, 93(3), 1996.