Maintenance strategy for bridge components on the basis of performance

Usually the status of a bridge is determined by its structural capability and material strength. Consequently a lot of researchers have studied the failure, the fatigue, and the deterioration of the structure in terms of the structural function of a bridge. However, the safety of a bridge may be affected simply by the damage of one of its components. Therefore this paper utilized a systematic classification and statistical analysis based on the thousands of sets of existing bridge inspection data collected in Taiwan to reach the following goals: (1) assess the deterioration rate for each component of a bridge; (2) determine the lifetime of each component based on the performance index; and (3) find out the preventive and essential maintenance strategy for each bridge component with an empirical method. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0887-3828(2009)23:4(234) CE Database subject headings: Inspection; Bridge maintenance; Deterioration; Life cycles.