Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) is an ambitious new 20-year research effort now being initiated by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Designated under SAFETEA-LU, the LTBP program is modeled in part on the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program that began in 1987. The new program will include detailed inspection, periodic evaluation and testing, continuous monitoring and forensic investigation of representative samples of bridges nationwide. These bridges will represent many structural types and materials and a variety of conditions, exposures and locations.
The data collected will be used to develop a high-quality quantitative database for highway bridges that will provide greater knowledge about bridge performance and degradation and support better design methods, improved performance predictive models and advanced management decision-making tools. With bridges aging, traffic demands growing and maintenance and rehabilitation funds limited, this knowledge will be crucial to improving system performance.
The quantitative data collected by the LTBP program will enable bridge owners to address numerous bridge condition assessment and management problems, including determining how and why bridges deteriorate; the effectiveness of various maintenance, repair and rehabilitation strategies and management practices; and the effectiveness of durability strategies for new bridge construction, including material selection. The program will promote more effective bridge management by validating and improving design provisions and using collected data to develop better deterioration models and to enhance life-cycle cost analysis. This data also can be used in conjunction with decision-making tools and algorithms to support optimal allocation of resources and effective performance measures for in-service bridges and bridges during extreme events.
FHWA is conducting workshops this year to introduce the initiative and its program goals and criteria to state departments of transportation and other stakeholders in the public, private and academic segments of the highway bridge community, including the international community. The workshops will collect feedback from participants on bridge performance data collection and analysis, long-term monitoring, bridge selection criteria, the use of sensing technologies and nondestructive evaluation tools and expected program outcomes.
The LTBP program will consist of two components: program management and administration, and technical execution. The program management and administration component will include elements modeled after the LTPP program. A prime contractor will oversee day-to-day operations of the program, including coordinating with state and local agency partners, training data collection contractors and identifying collaborative opportunities to mine collected data and develop new models, tools and algorithms. The prime contractor or subcontractors will interact directly with bridge owners and coordinate and conduct bridge inspections. States participating in the program will be responsible for providing access to bridges and bridge data files and for supporting safety and traffic-control measures during inspections.
The program’s technical components will address specific data to be collected; bridge sampling; performance measures; technology to support data collection; data quality, collection strategies and protocols for inspection and monitoring; and data mining and analysis.
