TY - JOUR A1 - Helmerich, Rosemarie A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Algernon, Daniel A1 - Streicher, Doreen A1 - Wiggenhauser, Herbert T1 - Bridge Inspection and Condition Assessment in Europe JF - Transportation research record N2 - The European infrastructure asset has developed historically and is characterized by nation-specific construction processes. Inspection, condition assessment, and maintenance procedures differ from country to country. Because of historical and political circumstances, national infrastructure assets are maintained at different levels, too. Since the budget for maintaining the bridge infrastructure less and less meets the demands of a growing bridge stock, bridge inspection, maintenance, and life-cycle considerations gain higher importance. The need exists to develop effective diagnosis tools for early detection of construction faults, defects, and deterioration processes during inspection, to keep the bridge infrastructure at an acceptable level, from structural safety and economic viewpoints. An overview on the latest research projects and integrated bridge management systems in Europe is given. The potentials of nondestructive testing (NDT) are presented, with special focus on technical advances of NDT applications to reinforced concrete (RC) and posttensioned concrete bridges. Although NDT is not regularly integrated in these processes, the application brings valuable information on the current condition of the inner structure in called-in special inspections. NDT-automation and the application of imaging echo methods, combined with advanced data processing, produce a surprising level of information about the inner structure of massive RC slabs up to a depth of about 60 cm. Detected inhomogeneity and scatterers of acoustic or electromagnetic waves can be visualized in vertical or horizontal slices through the structure or animations. The fusion of different three-dimensional data sets of processed data improves the interpretability and accuracy of the results. KW - Category IIIC PY - 2008 DO - https://doi.org/10.3141/2044-04 SN - 0361-1981 VL - 2044 SP - 31 EP - 38 PB - National Research Council CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-18037 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Helmerich, Rosemarie A1 - Niederleithinger, Ernst A1 - Algernon, Daniel A1 - Streicher, Doreen A1 - Wiggenhauser, Herbert T1 - Bridge inspection and condition assessment in Europe T2 - Proceedings of the TRB 87th Annual Meeting T2 - TRB 87th annual meeting CY - Washington, D.C., USA DA - 2008-01-13 KW - Construction KW - Environment and Energy PY - 2008 IS - CD-ROM (Paper 08-1450 / Session 568) SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - TRB CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-16651 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -