Surveillance Research Results of Road Bridges in Finland

This paper describes results of the long-term surveillance research on construction and repair of road bridges in Finland. This research, started 1998, has been focusing on specific issues arising in maintenance of Finish Road Administration’s (Finnra’s) bridges. Finnra’s bridge stock consists on of order 14’000 bridges, among the most are made of concrete. Issues dealt contain 17 named problem areas on various types of bridges, which have been identified by the maintenance specialists. These are related to those, on which Finnra has released own guidelines; tested new materials; or prepared standard drawings for structural details. Typical problem areas include drainage systems; performance of bearings and expansion joints; strengthening systems; cracking of concrete decks; durability of concrete coatings, i.e. the issues which often have notable effect on quality and economy of bridge maintenance.