Structural Reassessment of Existing Road Bridges in Germany

Abstract

<p>The assessment and the preservation of existing bridges is a great challenge to the departments of transportation and highways of the Federal Republic of Germany. The increased traffic volume and traffic loads in comparison to those which the existing bridges were originally designed for and the ageing of the structures necessitate a reassessment.</p><p>For this purpose a special code for the structural recalculation of existing bridges was worked out by a task group of the Federal States and the State of Germany on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Construction and Urban Affairs, which has been applicable since May 2011. First insights and experiences from its application shall contribute to the future development of this new regulation. In the context of a project of the <i>TU Dresden </i>with the State Office for Transportation of a north-eastern federal state the new regulation is being applied to existing road bridges in this one. The Institute of Concrete Structures of the <i>TU Dresden </i>is responsible for the scientific and technical supervision of the recalculation which is done by various consulting engineers.</p><p>This paper describes the approach to the recalculation of the existing road bridges in this federal state of Germany, the classification into groups of different types of structures, the prioritisation and the choice of representative bridge structures for the recalculation and the evaluation of its results for the final assessment.</p>