Railroad bascule bridge load rating

Radio Island Bridge, built in 1960, is located over the Newport River, Beaufort, North Carolina. The bridge was load rated and strengthened to provide 25 additional years of safe, reliable service. The bridge was rated the ASR (Allowable Stress Rating) method as defined by AREMA, for Cooper E80 Loading. The paper will discuss the following subjects: 1). Demonstrate the procedure of the rehabilitation design of a bascule bridge guided by the structural load rating. 2). Develop a method to predict the future section loss of structural members. 3). Compare the LRFR (Load and Resistance Factor Rating) and ASR bridge load rating methods. 4). Discuss a quantitative way to apply the expected future service years in a rehabilitation design.