The management of steel and composite bridges at the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB AG)

At the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB AG), some 500 steel and 1600 composite bridges (including filler beam bridges) among other structures are under the responsibility of the author. Since 1984 all important information concerning bridges has been filed in a compact inspection data base in the central mainframe at SBB AG. The procedure to establish the list of maintenance tasks is recorded under the title Maint6, the programme calculating the evolution of bridge condition in relation to the given budget is recorded under the title Maint66. In a new bridge design the basic rules for good fatigue details are taken into account. For old riveted railway bridges however, requirements to determine fatigue lives had to be developed based on nowadays know how in this field.