New Project: Develop Element Level Bridge Performance Measures and Targets

Currently, federal bridge performance measures in the United States and measures most commonly used by state transportation agencies for bridge management are based on National Bridge Inventory (NBI) General Condition Ratings that reflect bridge component conditions (deck, superstructure and substructure).

MnDOT also collects bridge element data that provides a more granular, objective and quantitative assessment of condition, and would like to have performance measures and targets based on the bridge element data that guides a data-driven methodology to select cost-effective treatments.

Objectives

In a new study, researchers will:

Develop bridge element condition indexes that will guide cost-effective life cycle treatment selection
Identify elements, condition states and other variables that should contribute to treatment selection along with their associated effects
Develop a process and a tool to rank bridges within treatment categories based on the developed indexes
Test the models with MnDOT and refine the models and the tool based on the feedback from the pilot effort

The multi-phase approach and multi-level index are intended to produce models that are sufficiently granular and vetted by MnDOT to support selection of cost-efficient strategies and provide MnDOT with performance measures and a prioritization tool based on asset management principles.