Book Review
Review of Bridge Safety, Maintenance and Management in a
Life-Cycle Context by Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim
CRC Press, 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL
33487-2742; 2022; ISBN 9781032052816; 296 pp.; $138.86.
Soundar Balakumaran, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE
VTRC, Virginia Dept. of Transportation, 530 Edgemont Road, Charlottes-
ville, VA 22903. Email: soundar.balakumaran@vdot.virginia.gov.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5966-8839
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 139.255.192.18 on 03/13/24. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
https://doi.org/10.1061/JBENF2.BEENG-6449
Bridges are critical infrastructure that connects people and places.
They play a vital role in economic growth by enabling the move-
ment of goods and people, which in turn boosts trade and invest-
ment. In addition, bridges improve access to jobs, education, and
healthcare, which could help to reduce poverty and inequality. A
study by the ASCE found that bridges create jobs and boost
wages. For example, the massive Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel
Expansion Project, in Virginia, US, is projected to create 28,000
new jobs and generate $4.6 billion in investments.
The condition of bridges in the US is a cause for concern. Ac-
cording to the ASCE, 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges,
are considered structurally deficient, which means that they are in
poor condition. A number of factors have contributed to the poor
condition of bridges in the US. One factor is the age of many brid-
ges. The average age of a bridge in the US is 44 years, and many
bridges were built before long-term performance and life cycle
analysis were considered, even empirically. Another important fac-
tor is the lack of funding for bridge maintenance and repair, which
makes life cycle planning an even more compelling strategy.
Life cycle bridge management takes a holistic approach that
considers the life cycle of a bridge, from its design and construction
to its eventual demolition. This approach helps to ensure that brid-
ges are properly maintained and repaired throughout their life cycle
and replaced when they reach the end of their service life.
In this book, Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim deal with the
concepts and approaches toward life cycle maintenance and the
management of bridges. It is divided into 10 chapters and system-
atically presents an educative experience on this complex topic.
The core theme of the book is present throughout the book from
the first page to the last, which is an excellent strategy to educate
the readers on this core topic. In addition, the timing for this
book could not be more perfect given the asset owners’ increased
interest in systematic bridge management tools and approaches.
Chapter 1 describes the underlying mathematical methods that
are needed to understand the analysis in the rest of the book. As
noted previously, the brilliance of the organization is that the au-
thors introduce the concept of life cycle performance almost imme-
diately from the get-go. This context is never lost throughout this
chapter and the book, which is quite refreshing and educative.
The visuals and illustrations are crystal clear and add clarity to
the write up.
Uncertainty is a tremendous challenge to deal with, and
Chapter 2 provides a wealth of knowledge on this topic. The impact
of inspections on the reduced uncertainty is that they provide bridge
managers with more information on the current condition of their
bridges, which could help them to make better decisions about
© ASCE 07523001-1
J. Bridge Eng., 2023, 28(9): 07523001
maintenance and repair. In addition, the illustrations are simple
and to the point when displaying all the relevant information,
which is helpful to the reader.
Inspection, its frequency and depth, has an indirect but signifi-
cant impact on the service life of bridges by giving the bridge man-
agers feedback on their current conditions. Chapter 3 delves deep
into the various methods of inspection and monitoring. This chapter
connects the impact of monitoring the life cycle cost and discusses
in detail the probabilities of detecting defects using these methods.
When reading the equations throughout this chapter, it does start to
seem a little tedious to constantly refer back to the list of notations
at the beginning of it.
Chapter 4 moves from inspection to the next logical topic of
bridge maintenance since asset owners use the inspection data to
prioritize maintenance actions to extend the life of bridges. Duti-
fully this chapter talks about the impact of different maintenance
models on the life cycle context.
The core optimization methods and the basis on which to opti-
mize for the entire life cycle of bridges are thoroughly indulged in
Chapter 5. This chapter could be considered the unifying chapter
that takes concepts from the first four chapters and applies them
to optimize the life cycle performance. Even if the list of notations
at the beginning seems to be a clear method when organizing the
arrangement of the chapters, it is important to note the preceding
observation about how tiresome it is to constantly refer back to
the list of notations remains valid.
Chapter 6 is a distinct and refreshing chapter where the knowl-
edge that was presented in the first five chapters is taken and de-
lightfully explained using illustrative examples. The icing on the
cake is that many of these are from research studies on actual struc-
tures, which promotes an even deeper understanding of complex
concepts. The practicality of this book is certainly exemplified in
this chapter.
It follows the logical expansion of the topics presented so far by
taking them to the network level from the project level. This is es-
sential when assessing the impact of the failures and disruptive
maintenance on the bridge users. In addition, the authors delve
into the network level impact of the uncertainties that are based
on various factors in Chapter 7, which are crucial pieces of knowl-
edge for asset owners and operators.
Chapter 8 discusses the emerging and essential topic of the re-
silience of individual bridges and bridge networks during extreme
events. This crucial topic is brought to the front and center in this
chapter in the context of life cycle performance and uncertainty.
The topics of sustainability and carbon footprint reduction are
touched on as well. There is plenty of interest in the resiliency
and sustainability approaches during the construction and mainte-
nance of bridges in the engineering community, which includes
the asset owners and managers. This is a brief and beautiful com-
pilation of valuable information.
Chapter 9 discusses the effect of climate change on the service
life of bridges. This builds on the previous chapter but shows the
distinct effect of climate change and other factors, such as popula-
tion growth over time.
In Chapter 10, Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim summarize
the content of the previous nine chapters and provide valuable
J. Bridge Eng.
 recommendations that could be taken as best practices toward
bridge management in a life cycle context. Finally, the authors pro-
mote the development of decision-making tools and software that
could help practitioners implement these concepts for bridge man-
agement. The reviewer fully agrees with this, as such tools and soft-
ware would be invaluable when ensuring that bridges are properly
maintained and managed throughout their life cycle.
Overall, it has been a pleasure to read and learn from this excel-
lent book. The book reminds the reviewer of the advice “Omit
needless words” in the classic book The Elements of Style by Wil-
liam Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. Written to be concise and to the
point, this book covers a vast amount of information. The organi-
zation of this book, where Dan M. Frangopol and Sunyong Kim
chose to bring along the core context from the first page to the
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last, is an immersive way to educate the readers on this overarching
topic. The context is never lost.
A minor criticism is related to the organization of the notations
at the beginning of each chapter, which made referring back and
forth a chore. Overall, engineering students and practitioners
could gain valuable knowledge from this book since it provides
a comprehensive overview of the latest research on life cycle
bridge management in a compressed format. In addition, this
could serve as a helpful reference book for professionals in this
field.
In conclusion, the excellent quality of this book makes it an es-
sential addition to university libraries and anyone that is interested
in bridge maintenance. I would like to extend my congratulations to
the editors and authors for their outstanding work.

© ASCE 07523001-2 J. Bridge Eng.

J. Bridge Eng., 2023, 28(9): 07523001