Sustainability of bridge maintenance

Balogun, Teslim B.; Tomor, Adrienn; Lamond, Jessica; Gouda, Hazem; Booth, Colin A.

Abstract

Bridge maintenance activities are important to consider within sustainable development due to the cost and environmental impact associated with various maintenance activities. Comparisons have been made between different bridge structural forms, based on materials, components and construction method, but less information is available on bridge maintenance activities to help decide a sustainable structural form. Typical maintenance aspects of the predominant forms of bridge structure (i.e. concrete, steel and masonry bridges) were considered in this study to reveal their sustainability in terms of materials, energy, transportation, human health and ecosystems. The results indicate that concrete and steel bridge maintenance activities have an average impact of 42% and 46% compared with 12% for masonry bridge maintenance activities. It is concluded that the component parts of concrete and steel bridges should be revised as they play an integral role in the selection of maintenance options.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 9, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Feb 20, 2019
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 21, 2020
• Journal: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Bridge Engineering
• Print ISSN: 1478-4637
• Electronic ISSN: 1751-7664
• Publisher: Thomas Telford
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 172
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 54-64
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1680/jbren.15.00027
• Keywords: bridge, sustainability, life cycle assessment, bridge maintenance
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/857244
• Publisher URL: https://www.ice.org.uk/
• Contract Date: Jun 11, 2018