Bridge life-cycle costing in integrated environment of design, rating, and management

The discipline of bridge life-cycle costing is at a turning point: it could soon become far more useful and used than ever before for a range of decisions about bridge engineering and management and for broader asset management. Several important new research-and-development studies have provided essential tools and resources previously unavailable, and many agencies are starting to amass valuable databases of information about inventory, structures, and condition. A vision of how these diverse products of numerous researchers and sponsors can be brought together to greatly increase the practicality and value of bridge life-cycle cost analysis at the project level is presented.