Prioritizing and Selecting Bridge Management Actions for Heightened Truck Loads and Natural Hazards in Light of Funding Allocation Patterns

有效分配桥梁管理资金是全国面临的一个关键挑战，因为桥梁继续恶化，并且暴露于更大的允许卡车交通，这些都加剧了它们对自然灾害的脆弱性。同时，公共安全、工业和经济发展依赖于可靠的桥梁和交通网络，以应对运行负荷和极端事件后的影响。该项目提供了一种透明的方法，根据卡车负荷增加、资金分配模式以及结构缺陷、忽视危害保护和预算有限的情况，优先考虑和选择自然灾害桥梁管理行动。为了推动桥梁库存管理的新方法，本研究将：(1)利用新兴的统计学习技术，在考虑地震危险和卡车交通增加的情况下，推导出有效评估网络桥梁性能的替代模型。(2)开发新的优先排序方法，对需要升级的关键桥梁进行排名，考虑到它们对极端事件的脆弱性，以及在运输网络中的作用，包括实现货运流。(3)在反映典型援助分配偏好和以往项目经验的同时，选择既能实现安全和地震灾害保护的桥梁减灾行动。通过这种方法，可以在减轻地震等自然灾害风险的需要与对必须承受更大的卡车交通和货物吞吐量的老化桥梁进行升级的要求之间取得平衡。因此，可以实现桥梁管理解决方案，同时满足运营负荷需求和地震灾害保护，以改善桥梁网络性能。该项目将对改善公共安全产生直接影响，在运行负荷增加和老化的背景下，保护美国桥梁基础设施免受自然灾害的影响。此外，州际贸易和经济发展将受益于交通基础设施安全性和效率的提高，包括对稀缺资金的明智投资，以避免桥梁的负载限制，改善交通网络的连通性和货运流，即使在遭受地震灾害的情况下。与利益相关者密切合作将有助于确保干预行动的相关性，以解决实际的基础设施挑战，并促进下一代短期和长期桥梁管理计划的采用，使用南卡罗来纳州的案例研究来测试和完善拟议的桥梁和网络评估，排名和干预方法。这种测试平台的执行和与相关利益相关者的互动可以让学生参与解决现实世界的问题，并促进将研究转化为实践。综合研究和教育计划将对准备应对美国基础设施挑战的未来工程师的准备和经验产生广泛的影响。学生们将受益于一个多学科的研究团队和发展活动，这些活动为工科学生提供了公民意识的培训，以促进他们参与有效的基础设施管理，提高他们对基础设施改善计划的社会经济和政治背景的认识。

Effective allocation of funds for bridge management poses a key challenge nationwide, as bridges continue to deteriorate and undergo exposure to heavier permissible truck traffic which collectively aggravate their vulnerability to natural hazards. Meanwhile, public safety, industry and economic development depend upon a reliable bridge and transportation network under operational loads and post-extreme events. This project provides a transparent approach to prioritize and select bridge management actions for natural hazards in light of heightened truck loads, funding allocation patterns, and a condition of deficient structures, neglected hazard protection and limited budgets. To propel a new approach to bridge inventory management, this research will: (1) Derive surrogate models for efficient performance assessment of bridges across a network considering seismic hazards and heightened truck traffic by taking advantage of emerging statistical learning techniques. (2) Develop new prioritization approaches to rank critical bridges for upgrade that account for their vulnerability to extreme events and role within the transportation network including enabling freight flow. (3) Select mitigation actions for bridges that achieve safety and seismic hazard protection, while reflecting typical aid allocation preferences and past project experience. Through this approach, the need for risk mitigation from natural hazards such as earthquakes can be balanced with requirements for upgrade of deteriorating bridges that must sustain heavier truck traffic and freight throughput. Hence bridge management solutions can be achieved which address both operational load demands and seismic hazard protection for improved bridge network performance.This project will have a direct influence on improving public safety by protecting US bridge infrastructure subjected to natural hazards within the context of increasing operational loads and deterioration. Furthermore, interstate commerce and economic development will benefit from improved safety and efficiency of transportation infrastructure, including wise investment of scarce funds to avoid load limitations on bridges and improve connectivity and freight flow across transportation networks, even when subjected to seismic hazards. Working closely with stakeholders will help to ensure the relevance of intervention actions to address practical infrastructure challenges and promote adoption into next generation short and long-term bridge management programs, using a case study in South Carolina to test and refine the proposed bridge and network assessment, ranking, and intervention methodology. Such test bed execution and interaction with relevant stakeholders can engage students in solving real world problems and facilitate translation of the research to practice. The integrated research and education program will have a broad impact on the preparation and experiences of future engineers prepared to tackle US infrastructure challenges. Students will benefit from a multi-disciplinary research team and development activities that provide civic-minded training for engineering students to advance their participation in effective infrastructure management with heightened awareness of the socio-economic and political contexts of infrastructure improvement programs.