Condition assessment of steel bridges in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The majority of steel bridges in Sri Lanka have been built more than 100 years ago. Most bridges have been subjected to changes such as deterioration due to corrosion, mechanical damage due to fatigue and repair due to maintenance. Therefore condition evaluation of such bridges is vital to ensure public safety. This paper presents condition assessment of selected steel bridges in Kaluthara district. The task is pursued through visual observations. Two mathematical models have been developed in this research to evaluate the condition of bridges. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was applied to obtain the priority vector of bridge elements and important factor of bridge elementswere used to obtain the overall bridge condition index. The modified overall bridge condition index is employed to assess the bridge condition. The results obtained from four selected steel bridges are presented in this paper.