The first stage of the work has been to collate information on bridge assessment from the participating countries. In the later stages, the aim is to provide guidelines that reflect the current best practices, a methodology that will allow for future development and sufficient flexibility to accommodate variations in national priorities as the process of harmonisation is pursued. The following tasks fall within the scope of the project: (1) a review of current procedures and standards used for bridge assessment in Europe; (2) the development of models for taking into account the bridge specific traffic conditions and material properties; (3) the use of reliability methods based on a probabilistic approach for bridge assessment including the use of measurements for updating the reliability of structural elements; and (4) the provision of recommendations for methods and procedures that can be adopted for the assessment module of the management framework highlighting where further development will be beneficial.
Germany's road infrastructure grew over centuries to become the arteries and lifelines of our society. The present safety of the infrastructure has to be ensured under consideration of environmental aspects. At the same time the owner has to make sure that the maintenance activities are carried out in the most efficient way. Considering the fact that financial resources are restricted, maintenance costs have to be spent in a way to obtain the greatest possible benefit. In the case of bridges, which are one of the most important parts of the road infrastructure in Germany, this task is supported by the application of a bridge management system (BMS). The existing German BMS contains assessment and optimization procedures on object and network level and is the basis for advancements to meet future demands. Developments concern life cycle and quality-oriented, holistically optimized procedures. Reasonable infrastructure management will contribute to meeting efficiency and sustainability objectives and to achieving interoperability. Here holistic network infrastructure management methods are required. There is a strong need for management solutions during the whole service life of a structure. The definition of criteria for evaluation of the relevance of failure mechanisms, including acceptance thresholds, requires the availability of relevant data for management procedure. Tools for innovative investigation methods and an effective data management will help in meeting the requirements. Relevant fields of research are improved maintenance strategies to meet future demands concerning heavy goods traffic, application and further development of nondestructive testing methods for efficient and sustainable management structures, and the improvement of analytic management tools to meet future demands.