Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Highway Bridges

Review of Bridge Design: (History of Bridges; Components of a Bridge and

its definitions, Classification of Road Bridges, functional and operational
requirements, Selection of Bridge site and planning; Collection of Bridge
design data; Design Process for Highway Bridges, Standard Loading for
Bridge Design).
Bridge Assessment Data: (Assessing a bridge in terms of Damage &
Defects, Challenges associated with various bridge component rating
methods, Bridge Inventory Data, Bridge Inspection Methods).
Bridge Assessment Methods: (Bridge Management Systems, Process,
Practice and Characteristics, Bridge Management Cycle).
Performance and Condition Assessments: (Aging and Deterioration
Processes, Performance Problems and Threats, Identifying functional
deficiencies, Bridge Condition Information, Bridge Condition Assessment,
Condition Ratings, Bridge Condition Index, Needs Assessment Models).
Bridge Vulnerabilities: (Historical & Recent Perspective, Identifying &
Assessing Bridge Vulnerabilities, Recognizing Reduced Redundancy).
Seismic Vulnerability Assessment: (Systematic evaluations of bridges
based on failure modes, Age of the bridges, Seismic Hazard and Risk of
damage, Fragility Curves).
Repair/Retrofitting: (Priorization, Optimization of retrofit methods).

Course Introduction:
Bridges are a critical and vital link in transportation infrastructure. Current
levels of infrastructure funding are inadequate to cope with the needs.
Effective bridge asset management practises are required to obtain the
best value from limited resources. The objective of this course is to
identify best Bridge Asset Management practises and critically examine
Bridge Asset Management tools.