ABSTRACT OF PAPER

Title of Paper: BRIDGE MAINTENANCE PRIORIZATION THROUGH VISUAL

INSPECTION AND MONITORING RESULTS

Authors: JF Rodrigues2, DL Rosa1, RL Queiroz1; FA Reis1, J Kneip Neto1, V Ippolito1, LC

Sampaio1 & CL Santiago1

Company of Affiliation: 1 MRS Logística, Brazil; 2PROCERT Projetos e Certificação

Estrutural Ltda, Brazil

Corresponding Author: JF Rodrigues, fernando.rodrigues@procertengenharia.com.br

Nominated Theme: BRIDGES & TUNNELS (Bridge Management Systems)

Abstract:

Since 1996, MRS Logística Company has been responsible for an extensive transportation
network including 631 bridges and viaducts, located in the most economically prominent states
located in South-eastern Brazil. This network is composed by railways that enable
transportation of iron ore from reserves of Minas Gerais to the main Brazil ports in São Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro. To guarantee structural performance of bridges and viaducts, many visual
inspections and structural monitoring have been performed, generating a large quantity of
data, demanding an effective Bridge Management System (BMS). This paper summarizes
challenges and lessons learned in implementing a bridge inspection standard and a new BMS.

Currently, MRS is implementing an advanced BMS which would help the company better
manage their structures. The system is expected to support the well-planned maintenance by
determining bridge condition, predicting future deterioration, and selecting optimal timing. For
this, the damages were evaluated in a quantitative way, requiring measurements of damage
extension during the inspections. An approach based on element level inspection was adopted
in this new version, what has brought benefits of detailed condition assessments using the raw
inspection information, expanded performance measures and bridge management system
deterioration of this assets. Indeed, the implementation of this new BMS procedure has
demanded a better discretization of structural elements during registration of the structure.

Since the integrated maintenance database was built such as for inventory data and the
inspection records and repair/improvement history evaluation data, the number of deteriorated
bridges and viaducts which need repair and/or reinforcement was determined by using several
kinds of formula based on fuzzy logic. An innovative aspect was to consider data obtained
from the structural tests and monitoring in this new approach, allowing considering others
structural performance indicatives, like concrete strengths and remaining fatigue life, during
the ranking of the priority matrix.