Maintenance-friendliness in management of civil engineering structures

Cost efficiency and reliability are mayor concerns in structural engineering, e.g. bridges. Acquisition costs depend strongly on buildability. Traditional approaches to lower maintenance costs are efficient maintenance and robust or maintenance-free design, normally expensive. This study’s approach is systematic and successive life-cycle assessment of reliability, availability, maintainability, safety (RAMS) and sustainability (LCCA, e-LCA, s-LCA, risk and legitimacy). IMF (index of maintenance-friendliness), IAC (algorithm for the identification of collateral components) can be used to quantify maintainability, e.g. low accessibility for inspection or operation, unease to operate, unsafety, etc. A holistic model has been suggested to confront these concerns in urban development. More than simplifying complexity, the authors suggest to deal with it.