Guidelines for Historic Bridge Rehabilitation and Replacement

Guidelines for Historic Bridge Rehabilitation and Replacement
Author: Mary Elizabeth McCahon
Publisher: AASHTO
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2008
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1560514302

This report presents a literature search, findings of a survey on the current state of historic bridge rehabilitation or replacement decision making by state and local transportation agencies, and nationally applicable decision-making guidelines for historic bridges. The guidelines are intended to be used as the protocol for defining when rehabilitation of historic bridges can be considered prudent and feasible and when it is not based on engineering and environmental data and judgments. The guidelines include identification of various approaches to bringing historic bridges into conformance with current design and safety guidelines/standards, and the effect or implications of remedial action on historical significance. There are currently no such nationally applicable decision-making guidelines, but there are a variety of state and local processes and policies for managing historic bridges. Effective practices for the various processes inform the nationally applicable guidelines. The guidelines are in narrative and matrix format.

Remaking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

Remaking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
Author: Karen Trapenberg Frick
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2015-08-14
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317338510

Winner of TransportiCA’s September Book Club Award 2018 On 17 October 1989 one the largest earthquakes to occur in California since the San Francisco earthquake of April 1906 struck Northern California. Damage was extensive, none more so than the partial collapse of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span, a vital link used by hundreds of thousands of Californians every day. The bridge was closed for a month for repairs and then reopened to traffic. But what ensued over the next 25 years is the extraordinary story that Karen Trapenberg Frick tells here. It is a cautionary tale to which any governing authority embarking on a megaproject should pay heed. She describes the process by which the bridge was eventually replaced as an exercise in shadowboxing which pitted the combined talents and shortcomings, partnerships and jealousies, ingenuity and obtuseness, generosity and parsimony of the State’s and the region’s leading elected officials, engineers, architects and other members of the governing elites against a collectively imagined future catastrophe of unknown proportions. In so doing she highlights three key questions: If safety was the reason to replace the bridge, why did it take almost 25 years to do so? How did an original estimate of $250 million in 1995 soar to $6.5 billion by 2014? And why was such a complex design chosen? Her final chapter – part epilogue, part reflection – provides recommendations to improve megaproject delivery and design.

Performance-based Decision-making in Post-earthquake Highway Bridge Repair

Performance-based Decision-making in Post-earthquake Highway Bridge Repair
Author: Eugene Gordin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2010
Genre: Bridges
ISBN: 9781124140728

Post-earthquake highway bridge repair is an ever-present part of the lifecycle of transportation systems in seismic regions. These repairs require multi-level decisions involving various stakeholders with differing values. The improvement of the repair decision process, repair decision itself, and repair decision outcomes, requires an evaluation of current practices in post-earthquake repair decision-making. This dissertation assesses these current practices within the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), outlines areas where the current process is ineffective, and highlights areas for improvement. Current repair decision-making practice is focused on the repair of individual bridges given a limited set of established repair methods. To improve upon these practices, this dissertation presents the Bridge Repair Decision Framework (BRDF), a new and unique methodology that allows for simultaneous consideration of all earthquake-damaged bridges as individual elements of a larger regional transportation system. This systematic approach enables the achievement of short- and long-term transportation system performance objectives while accounting for engineering, construction, financing, and public policy constraints. Furthermore, the BRDF allows for continuous refinement of the decision-making process to incorporate engineering and construction innovations, changes in the financial and public policy environment and, most importantly, changes in transportation system performance goals. While existing methodologies allow the incorporation of some of these changes, the BRDF provides a flexible structure that can account for all of these changes simultaneously. This is accomplished through a rigorous, performance-based, and risk-informed decision-making approach that presents repair decisions using a traditional engineering demand-capacity inequality. As a result, the BRDF empowers decision-makers with a holistic understanding of the transportation network condition on a microscopic (bridge) as well as macroscopic (overall system) level. The BRDF also accounts for the probabilistic nature of the earthquake hazard, bridge seismic capacity, and subsequent repair decisions, providing decision-makers with transparency regarding the uncertainties of system condition, repair method reliability, construction workforce availability, and public and business risks. BRDF decision-outcomes are technology-neutral as a result, greatly expanding the range of repair method alternatives that a decision-maker may consider while allowing for tradeoffs to be made between performance, cost, and time in light of transportation system condition and constraints. The BRDF is validated using a simulated bridge system case study that requires post-earthquake repair. This study was designed to demonstrate the functionality of the framework and to examine two alternate decision-making strategies: one with complete and the other with incomplete post-earthquake bridge damage state information. This case study led to refinements in the framework and insights about the benefits of additional information on the damage state of bridges in terms of overall repair time and cost of the regional transportation system. Additionally, the validation revealed areas where the current BRDF can be improved in future studies. The BRDF was created for large public transportation organizations such as the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where implementation of the BRDF requires several important prerequisites, including new database creation and additional training for engineers. Once implemented however, the BRDF allows decision-makers to potentially reduce repair costs and times, minimize system downtime, make better investments, and account for transportation system performance goals given current financial and public policy constraints.

Bridge Management Systems for Transportation Agency Decision Making

Bridge Management Systems for Transportation Agency Decision Making
Author: Michael J. Markow
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2009
Genre: Bridges
ISBN: 0309098351

This study gathers information on current practices that senior managers at transportation agencies use to make network-level decisions on resource allocations for their bridge programs. In particular, the study explores how agency bridge management systems are employed in this process. Information was gathered through a review of literature on U.S. and international bridge management, a survey of U.S. and Canadian transportation agencies, and 15 in-depth interviews with state DOT executive and bridge managers.

Decision-making on Mega-projects

Decision-making on Mega-projects
Author: Hugo Priemus
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1848440170

It will be useful for those experienced and senior professionals who are charged with authorizing and controlling projects. Recommended. P.F. Rad, Choice Building on the seminal work of Bent Flyvbjerg, this book is a collection of expert contributions that will prove essential to anyone wanting to understand why mega-projects go wrong and how they can be made to work better. Professor Sir Peter Hall, University College London, UK This book offers a refreshing and fascinating look at mega-projects from the perspective of public evaluation and planning. With the changing role of the public sector in planning and implementing large-scale projects and a subsequent strong emergence of private public modes of operation, mega-projects have become a problematic phenomenon. This volume is a major source of information and reference. It provides the reader with unique insights and caveats in mega-projects planning. Peter Nijkamp, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands This book enlarges the understanding of decision-making on mega-projects and suggest recommendations for a more effective, efficient and democratic approach. Authors from different scientific disciplines address various aspects of the decision-making process, such as management characteristics and cost benefit analysis, planning and innovation and competition and institutions. The subject matter is highly diverse, but certain questions remain at the forefront. For example, how do we deal with protracted preparation processes, how do we tackle risks and uncertainties, and how can we best divide the risks and responsibilities among the private and public players throughout the different phases of the project? Presenting a state-of-the-art overview, based on experiences and visions of authors from Europe and North America, this unique book will be of interest to practitioners of large-scale project management, politicians, public officials and private organisations involved in mega-project decision-making. It will also appeal to researchers, consultants and students dealing with substantial engineering projects, complex systems, project management and transport infrastructure.