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Summary of IOT Publications
| Title | Exploring the development of bridge inspection methodologies in Taiwan |
|---|---|
| Dept | Transportation Planning and Land Transport Division |
| Year | 2018 |
| Month | 9 |
| Price | 0 |
| Summary | Bridge management and maintenance are crucial tasks to sustain the serviceability and safety of bridges, since they are deteriorated with time or by external forces. In Taiwan, the first version of “Maintenance Manual of Highways” was announced in 1987 when many freeways and highways were built. However, DER&U and ABCDN were the two bridge visual inspection methodologies incorporated around that time. The second version of the maintenance manual was published in 2003 in which visual inspection of bridge was regulated for at least once per two years using the DER&U methodology, except for bridges less than five years old. Currently, official bridge inspection manuals include the “Manual for Enhancement and Inspection of Highway Steel Bridges (2008),” “Manual for Enhancement and Inspection for Railway Steel Bridges (2010),” “Manual for Highway Maintenance (2012),” and “Manual for Enhancement and Inspection of Highway Concrete Bridges (2015).” However, evaluation of deterioration in the DER&U methodology has been changed significantly in these manuals due to the tendency of incorporating the ABCDN methodology into it. Consequently, such inspection codes become more complicated and impose pressures onto the inspectors who tend to be conservative when performing the inspection. This project reviewed domestic and international bridge inspection manuals to summarize inspection methodologies, and also interviewed 34 bridge inspectors from 20 bridge management agencies. An experts meeting were conducted to collect opinions and suggestions. Three bridges were inspected based on the traditional DER&U methodology, 2015 version of the inspection code, and codes from Japanese highways agencies. The conclusions were: (1) traditional DER&U methodology is more suitable for inspecting bridges in Taiwan, (2) the inspection methodology combined with DER&U and ABCDN is difficult to be performed under current budgets, and (3) conservative evaluation standards of the combined methodology cannot distinguish severity levels of deterioration. Finally, nine suggestions were proposed: (1) The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau should modify the manuals of years 2008 and 2015 based on the guidance provided by the MOTC, that “the bridge inspection manuals should only provide guidelines or principles”, (2) evaluation of deteriorations should be modified for practicality, (3) both bridge management agencies and the MOTC should work together to resolve the difficulties derived from current manuals, (4) bridge management agencies should formulate appropriate bridge inspection manuals, (5) bridge management agencies should increase bridge inspection budgets, (6) bridges should be classified into various categories, (7) new types of optical inspection technologies should be introduced and promoted, (8) bridge inspectors should be trained and certified, and (9) before a manual’s promulgation, field tests and public hearings should be conducted by the agency which modifies the manual. |
| Post date | 2018-10-24 |
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