Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Deficiencies Under Service Loads

Conditions of existing bridges are often problematic issues and expensive to resolve for many countries. In order to anticipate and reduce these problems, the combination of various general and local factors causing degradation needs to be identified in the early stage. The identification of these problems reveals the need for local research and detailed inspection for bridges. Reinforced Concrete Bridges in Albania were built at different standards in different periods and were exposed to rapidly increasing and changing traffic loads in the last three decades. This situation made the structural assessment of the bridges inevitable in the local conditions. Although the existing condition of these bridges had not been clearly defined, after democratization and joining the European Council (the 1990s), new bridges were rapidly built and existing bridges were strengthened with different methods. In this context, the structural condition of existing reinforced concrete bridges in Albania was examined in this study. The condition of Albanian bridges was presented in this paper based on visual inspection of 104 bridges covering the total length of 7271.6 m along 263 km road from different parts of the country, concentrating on local causes of deteriorations. The main causes of the defects are figured out in the study as traffic load, natural force, aging, lack of maintenance, and last but not least construction and design deficiencies. The study concludes that the general physical condition of the bridges is poor, so the services provided by the bridges are potentially at risk. The results obtained at the end of this study may be valid for countries with similar features, e.g., other Balkan countries.