Analytical tool to predict structural and serviceability-related repairs of multi-girder concrete bridges in Nova Scotia

加拿大市政当局联合会2001年委托进行的一项研究预测，在过去20年中，加拿大的基础设施赤字每年增加约20亿美元。基础设施，包括加拿大的桥梁库存，随着时间的推移继续恶化，加拿大80%的基础设施已过其使用年限。在新斯科舍省，使所有桥梁达到可持续状态的估计预算为10年内每年需要2.1亿美元，而根据新斯科舍省运输和基础设施更新部2019年的报告，用于维护、维修和更换桥梁的实际年度预算为4500万美元。加拿大修复和维护桥梁的资源有限，加上基础设施赤字巨大，这一挑战引发了开发强大工具的必要性，以对现有桥梁库存进行风险排序，以确定桥梁维修的优先顺序。本研究的目的是开发一种分析的、用户友好的工具，以预测新斯科舍省现有的多梁混凝土桥梁的结构和可用性相关的维修。该工具将被用于对新斯科舍省现有桥梁进行风险评级。在开发该工具时将考虑以下几点：(1)它的设计将增强新斯科舍省目前的桥梁检查做法，以更新现有的桥梁可靠性；(2)它将使用针对新斯科舍省天气条件的劣化模型。该工具将分四个阶段开发：文件审查和对新斯科舍省选定桥梁的实地检查(第一阶段)、算法开发(第二阶段)、软件编程(第三阶段)以及对新斯科舍省选定桥梁的风险排名(第四阶段)。作为该项目的一部分，四名高素质人员(HQP)将接受桥梁评估和维修专业领域的培训。伙伴组织将使用该工具评估和修复新斯科舍省现有的多梁混凝土桥梁。

Canada's infrastructure deficit has been growing by about $2 billion a year over the past two decades as projected by a study commissioned by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in 2001. Infrastructure including the bridge inventory in Canada continues to deteriorate over time with 80 per cent of Canada's infrastructure is past its service life. In Nova Scotia, the estimated budget for bringing all bridges to sustainable condition is $210 million per year needed over 10 years, while the actual allocated annual budget to maintain, repair, and replace bridges is $45 million as reported by Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal in 2019. The challenge of having limited resources to repair and maintain bridges in Canada paired with a large infrastructure deficit initiate the need to develop robust tools to risk rank existing bridge inventory to prioritize bridge repairs. The objective of the present research is to develop an analytical user-friendly tool to predict the structural and serviceability-related repairs of existing multi-girder concrete bridges in Nova Scotia. The tool will be utilized to risk rank existing bridges in Nova Scotia. The following will be considered in developing the tool: (1) it will be designed to augment the current bridge inspection practice in Nova Scotia in updating existing bridge reliability; and (2) it will utilize deterioration models specific to Nova Scotia's weather conditions. The tool will be developed in four phases as follows: document review and field inspection of select bridges in Nova Scotia (Phase I), algorithm development (Phase II), software programming (Phase III), and risk ranking of select bridges in Nova Scotia (Phase IV). Four Highly Qualified Personal (HQPs) will be trained as part of this project in the specialized area of bridge evaluation and repair. The tool will be used by the partner organizations to evaluate and repair existing multi-girder concrete bridges in Nova Scotia.