Quantifying Bridge Deterioration Catalysts Through Environment Classifications

Many bridges in the Commonwealth of Virginia are rapidly approaching the end of their designed service life and proper management of these structures has become a priority for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Historical bridge inspection records and GIS are used to identify environments associated with increased bridge deterioration. Markov chains and Weibull distributions models are used to study the relative impact an environment has on bridge element deterioration.

In this investigation, eleven environment classifications relating to a bridges district ownership, traffic levels, bridge geometry, and weather exposure are identified and the resulting deterioration effects are quantified in terms of modification factors compatible with AASHTOWare Bridge Management. Implementation of modification factors was found to provide higher accuracy deterioration models than the models currently used by the Department of Transportation.