Article
A Road Map for Effective Implementation of Nondestructive Testing into Bridge Management
4th International Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction Management
(2013)
Abstract
The highway agencies in the U.S. are entrusted to manage more than 600,000 bridges. To facilitate these efforts, bridge management programs are developed. Bridge management programs are supported by the information in databases such as <em>Pontis</em>. The Michigan Department of Transportation is one such agency that uses data from <em>Pontis</em> for bridge management purposes. The state trunkline system managed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) comprised of 9,695 miles and carries 51 percent of total statewide traffic. There are 4,413 bridges on the trunkline and 40 percent is on freeways. Total bridge deck area maintained by the MDOT is 49 million square feet (i.e., 75 percent of the bridge deck area of all Michigan's highway bridges). Michigan has eleven corridors on National/International significance. The decision principles to guide the management, operation, and investments on these corridors include strategies to reduce delays and minimize impacts during inspection as well as construction. One of the strategies explored by MDOT is to incorporate and integrate NDE technologies to bridge management.
This paper presents an overview of the MDOT <em>Pontis</em> database, data collection process, implementation ready nondestructive testing technologies suitable for collecting useful data for bridge management purposes, and a road map to integrate such technologies into the bridge management program.
Keywords
- bridge,
- bridge management,
- nondestructive testing
Disciplines
Publication Date
December 14, 2013
Citation Information
Upul Attanayake and Haluk M. Aktan. "A Road Map for Effective Implementation of Nondestructive Testing into Bridge Management" 4th International Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction Management (2013) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/upul-attanayake/70/