Reliability-based life-cycle management of highway bridges

The objective of bridge management is to allocate and use the limited resou rces to balance Lifetime reliability and life-cycle cost in an optimal mann er. As the 20th century has drawn to a close, it is appropriate to reflect on the birth and growth of bridge management systems, to examine where they are today, and to predict their future. In this paper, it is attempted to shed some light on the past, present, and future of life-cycle management o f highway bridges. It is shown that current bridge management systems have limitations and that these Limitations can be overcome by using a reliabili ty-based approach. It is concluded that additional research is required to develop better life-cycle models and tools to quantify the risks, costs, an d benefits associated with highway bridges as well as their interrelationsh ips in highway networks.