Reliability-based life-cycle management of highway bridges

The objective of bridge management is to allocate and use the limited resources to balance lifetime reliability and life-cycle cost in an optimal manner. 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 of highway bridges. It is shown that current bridge management systems have limitations and that these limitations can be overcome by using a reliability-based approach. It is concluded that additional research is required to develop better life-cycle models and tools to quantify the risks, costs, and benefits associated with highway bridges as well as their interrelationships in highway networks.