Performance Evaluation and Life Prediction of Highway Concrete Bridge Superstructure across Design Types

AbstractManagers of highway bridge infrastructure constantly seek to improve their predictions of the physical performance of their facilities at any future time and also to identify the influential factors of bridge deterioration. In addressing this subject for concrete superstructures in particular, this paper uses empirical data from Indiana spanning 1992–2014. The superstructure design types considered are cast-in-place concrete (slab, stringer, and arch-deck) and prestressed concrete (stringer, T-beam, box-beam multiple, and box-beam single). Exponential and polynomial functional forms are investigated as part of the modeling process. A number of factors are found to have statistically significant influence on the deterioration of the concrete superstructures’ physical condition consistently across all design types, and other factors are found to be significant only for some design types. The paper also carries out sensitivity and marginal effects analyses to quantify the strength of effect of the influential factors on superstructure deterioration. Using the developed models, the paper establishes service lives for each concrete superstructure design type and compares the findings with those of past studies. The developed models can help highway agencies to carry out condition-based scheduling of bridge superstructure rehabilitation and reconstruction and to identify the materials and designs that are best suited to specific climates. This is useful for a number of agency processes including work programming and scheduling, and for feedback to bridge designers and maintenance personnel.