Bridge Health Index for the City and County of Denver, Colorado. I: Current Methodology

Current Bridge Health Index (BHI) in Pontis Bridge Management System applied to assess the bridge health conditions for 615 bridges in city and county of Denver (CCD) does not provide CCD engineers a valuable analysis of the health condition of its relatively small bridge network. This paper explores both the calculation results and the computing methodology of the current BHI. The BHI was computed for the entire 615 CCD bridge network using the two current cost-based methodologies. Based on the analysis, it was concluded that the current BHI is subjective to a municipality’s often imprecise cost data. This coupled with the methodology of heavily correlating cost with a bridge’s condition reveals potential for modification to meet the needs of the CCD. The results of this study are used as a basis for developing an alternate BHI methodology.