BACKGROUND

The purpose of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Bridge Evaluation (MBE) is to serve as a resource for developing policies and procedures for the inspection, evaluation, and load rating of in-service highway bridges. The National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) are the regulations for bridge safety inspection, load rating, and inventory requirements. The MBE is incorporated by reference in the NBIS.

The MBE has not been comprehensively updated to incorporate changes in federal legislation and requirements, including (1) element-level bridge inspection on the National Highway System, (2) bridge management system as part of Transportation Asset Management Plan, (3) NBIS, and (4) the Specification for the National Bridge Inventory (SNBI). Additionally, the MBE updates have not kept pace with innovations, research, and best practices, such as nondestructive evaluation techniques, underwater imaging, uncrewed inspection systems, bridge asset management systems, oversize/overweight permitting, posting, extreme event response, nonredundant steel tension members, and risk-based inspection intervals.

Past updates lacked a holistic approach, which led to inconsistencies throughout the MBE. Some MBE topics may benefit from consolidating existing documents into the MBE, relocating existing MBE topics to other AASHTO documents, or creating independent manuals to streamline the user experience. 

Research is needed to identify the steps for a systematic update of the AASHTO MBE. 

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a roadmap to update, optimize, and restructure the in-service inspection, evaluation, and load rating requirements for highway bridges.

Accomplishment of the project objective will require at least the following tasks.

TASKS

PHASE I—Planning

Task 1. Conduct a literature review of the in-service inspection, evaluation, and load rating of bridges and structures relevant to this research. The review shall include published and unpublished documentation and manuals and research conducted by the NCHRP; Federal Highway Administration (FHWA); other national and state agencies; and international organizations.

Task 2. Synthesize the results of the literature review to identify knowledge gaps related to the research objective. These gaps should be addressed in the roadmap.

Task 3. Propose the research plan to be executed in Phase II to achieve the research objective.

Task 4.  Propose an outline and format for the roadmap to achieve the research objective. The roadmap will be fully developed in Phase II.

Task 5. Prepare an interim report that documents Tasks 1 through 4 and provides an updated work plan for the remainder of the research. The updated plan must describe the process and rationale for the work proposed for Phase II.

PHASE II— Roadmap Development and Final Products

Task 6. Develop the roadmap according to the approved interim report. At minimum, the roadmap shall include the identification of:

• Updates necessary to align the AASHTO MBE content with SNBI and NBIS;
• Opportunities to restructure the content of the AASHTO MBE into multiple AASHTO manuals;
• Content that is unclear, incorrect, outdated, or missing in the AASHTO MBE;
• Conflicts within the AASHTO MBE and other AASHTO requirements;
• Strategies for documenting the evolution of AASHTO design specifications that affect evaluation and load rating;
• Strategies for addressing the duplication and referencing of various AASHTO documents and FHWA publications in AASHTO MBE content;
• New technologies that have matured and that should be added to the AASHTO MBE;
• New inspection and evaluation methodologies;
• Research that has been completed and that should be considered for adoption;
• Additional research needs;
• Priority of research and topics to be incorporated;
• Key subject matter experts (e.g., AASHTO Committee on Bridges and Structures technical committees, FHWA, industry groups, bridge owners, consulting engineers, academia, etc.) who need to be involved in future implementation of the roadmap; and
• Phasing strategies to implement the roadmap recommendations, if needed.

Task 7. Develop problem statement(s) needed to implement the roadmap recommendations based on the priority identified in Task 6. Include recommendations for funding sources (e.g., pooled fund, NCHRP, AASHTO, etc.)

Task 8. Submit the draft final deliverables, including (1) the roadmap and problem statements, (2) a final report documenting the entire research effort, and (3) a stand-alone technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products.” 

STATUS: Proposals have been received in response to the RFP. The project panel will meet to select a contractor to perform the work.