Assessment, Upgrading and Refurbishing – A consolidated approach

Switzerland can be seen as an example of an industrialized and densely populated European country. Its national highway network gets old, and therefore assessment, upgrading and refurbishing of highway structures like bridges become an important issue. At first, these three terms are questioned, replaced by more meaningful ones and a superior single term is proposed. Then the main steps to keep an infrastructure in good shape are explained. Special emphasis is placed on the different formats to verify the structural safety of an existing structure and preceding procedures like the updating of data. Anticipation of future needs and considerations on the network level will become more important and have consequences for decisions on the optimal intervention. Three recent examples illustrate the general statements.