Integrated life-cycle management of highway bridges

Transport infrastructure systems are central to economic activities and vital to economic growth. The rapid economic growth of a city leads to high demands for comprehensive and effective highway networks. The conventional procurement approach without the integration of probabilistic life-cycle cost modeling induces substantial long term maintenance cost. The main idea of this research is to propose a practical framework for predicting the service life by using appropriate corrosion deterioration models for reinforced concrete and fatigue models for steel bridge structures as examples. The deterioration models will then be integrated into the life-cycle cost analysis process in dealing with the long term maintenance and repair strategy. Once deterioration and life-cycle cost models of highway structures have been established, appropriate public private partnership procurement strategies and associated financing methods and the project period determination could also be developed.