Effective allocation of funds for bridge management poses a key challenge nationwide, as bridges continue to deteriorate and undergo exposure to heavier permissible truck traffic which collectively aggravate their vulnerability to natural hazards. Meanwhile, public safety, industry and economic development depend upon a reliable bridge and transportation network under operational loads and post-extreme events. This project provides a transparent approach to prioritize and select bridge management actions for natural hazards in light of heightened truck loads, funding allocation patterns, and a condition of deficient structures, neglected hazard protection and limited budgets. To propel a new approach to bridge inventory management, this research will: (1) Derive surrogate models for efficient performance assessment of bridges across a network considering seismic hazards and heightened truck traffic by taking advantage of emerging statistical learning techniques. (2) Develop new prioritization approaches to rank critical bridges for upgrade that account for their vulnerability to extreme events and role within the transportation network including enabling freight flow. (3) Select mitigation actions for bridges that achieve safety and seismic hazard protection, while reflecting typical aid allocation preferences and past project experience. Through this approach, the need for risk mitigation from natural hazards such as earthquakes can be balanced with requirements for upgrade of deteriorating bridges that must sustain heavier truck traffic and freight throughput. Hence bridge management solutions can be achieved which address both operational load demands and seismic hazard protection for improved bridge network performance.
This project will have a direct influence on improving public safety by protecting US bridge infrastructure subjected to natural hazards within the context of increasing operational loads and deterioration. Furthermore, interstate commerce and economic development will benefit from improved safety and efficiency of transportation infrastructure, including wise investment of scarce funds to avoid load limitations on bridges and improve connectivity and freight flow across transportation networks, even when subjected to seismic hazards. Working closely with stakeholders will help to ensure the relevance of intervention actions to address practical infrastructure challenges and promote adoption into next generation short and long-term bridge management programs, using a case study in South Carolina to test and refine the proposed bridge and network assessment, ranking, and intervention methodology. Such test bed execution and interaction with relevant stakeholders can engage students in solving real world problems and facilitate translation of the research to practice. The integrated research and education program will have a broad impact on the preparation and experiences of future engineers prepared to tackle US infrastructure challenges. Students will benefit from a multi-disciplinary research team and development activities that provide civic-minded training for engineering students to advance their participation in effective infrastructure management with heightened awareness of the socio-economic and political contexts of infrastructure improvement programs.
