Improving transparency of bridge condition for decision-making and analysis in bridge management

Transparency of collected information on bridge infrastructure condition leads to more informed and more effective decisions regarding where and how to appropriate resources so that the maximum benefit is gained for the bridge network. The condition of bridges can be made more transparent to the general public and bridge managers through the use of spatial and spatiotemporal hotspot detection with surveillance geoinformatics. With the detection of hotspots, it is possible to quickly and graphically identify if there is a region with a concentration of bridges having poor ratings. This study demonstrates how hotspot detection can be used to address bridge management questions related to the scour critical rating and to the overall condition of the bridge according to the sufficiency rating in the 2008 National Bridge Inventory for the state of Pennsylvania.