Author: S.A. Dabous
Canadian Transportation Research Forum 43rd Annual Conference, New Brunswick, Canada. June 2008
Abstract
Satisfactory performance of existing civil infrastructure is essential to maintain economic growth and social evelopment of a modern society. As a result, aging civil infrastructure has become a major social and economical concern in North America. The transportation system is one major group of the infrastructure system and includes ground, air, water ways and mass transportation (Hudson et al. 1998).
In particular, bridges are important item of this system. Bridges have a distinct function of joining highways as crucial nodes. In addition, bridges are exposed to aggressive environment and increasing traffic volumes and truck loads (Frangopol and Liu 2005).
