Bridge life-cycle performance and cost: Analysis, prediction, optimization and decision making

The development of a generalized framework for assessing bridge life-cycle performance and cost, with emphasis on analysis, prediction, optimization, and decision making under uncertainty, is briefly addressed. The central issue underlying the importance of the life-cycle approach to bridge engineering is the need for a rational basis for making informed decisions regarding design, construction, inspection, monitoring, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, replacement, and management of bridges under uncertainty by using multiobjective optimization in order to balance conflicting criteria such as performance and cost. A number of significant developments are summarized, including time-variant reliability, risk, resilience, and sustainability of bridges and bridge transportation networks. Furthermore, the effects of climate change on the probabilistic lifecycle performance assessment of highway bridges are addressed. Moreover, integration of SHM and updating in bridge management and probabilistic life-cycle optimization considering multi-attribute utility and risk attitudes are presented.