Bridge management and inspection for the County of Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore County owns over 350 bridges covering a wide range of types and lengths. Its prior methods of utilizing bridge data for its management and inspection processes were typical of that of many other cities and counties: largely paper based with a handful of spreadsheets and small disjoint databases. For its latest inspection cycle the county adopted an advanced bridge inspection and management system to organize all of its bridge information covering a wide variety of structures. This paper will cover an overview of the county's needs and the solutions that have been developed to significantly improve both the inspection and management processes. In the latest inspection cycle an inspection team consisting of five different consulting companies was selected. Their experiences using the software along with how it was enabled to support multiple field teams and offices to work together will be presented. The companies used the software on a variety of hardware ranging from pen-enabled tablet computers to web-based office clients. Electronic forms were created to meet the county's requirements and allow for entry of all information from the inspection. The county's usage and goals of its new management software which utilizes the electronic inspection data will also be discussed. Baltimore County personnel are now able to review all reports via a secure web-based browser and utilize powerful tools to instantly track changes occurring, highlight problem areas, and generate a wide range of needed reports. This new approach has allowed the county to improve its analysis and accuracy of inspection data while assisting in identifying problem early allowing a more proactive approach toward bridge management instead of a reactive approach.