A proposal for low cost condition assessment method for existing RC bridges

Aging infrastructures require huge budgets to preserve their functionality and the lack of effective maintenance leads to increasing deterioration and therefore higher repair costs. For these reasons, assessing the condition of infrastructures becomes mandatory, with particular attention to the ones still in service even when their life limit has been exceeded. In particular, this problem is really important in Countries, like Italy, in which there are several operating bridges at the end of their service life. In this framework, many companies responsible for the management of road networks have turned their interest towards Bridge Management Systems (BMS). This paper presents a fast and low-cost method for condition rating of reinforced concrete bridges. The proposal is based on visual inspection and non-destructive testing. A specific parameter is designed to take into account the mechanical degradation of materials and the damage location at the structural sub-component level. Some benchmark case studies have been discussed in order to compare the proposed method with other approaches available in literature.