Long Term Cross Asset Management of Highway Infrastructure

The paper describes a case study on a highway section in Austria comprising 100 structures conducted for the Austrian Federal Highway Company ASFINAG in 2011. A tailored life cycle model was developed utilizing state-of-the-art information from literature and VCE’s experience gained in the course of performing bridge monitoring and bridge inspection worldwide. This knowledge has been incorporated into the assessment procedure that is described in the paper. Probabilistic methods are used for the service life calculations of the whole structure as well as for individual items delivering lower and upper bounds of life expectancy. Based on the available structural information, inspection reports and traffic data maintenance instructions were elaborated in order to ensure the demanded structural service life and operability. Besides cost optimization the main focus was on the minimization of traffic impediment. The case study includes different budget scenarios given by the client over a period of 30 years.