Service Life and Impact of Virginia Environmental Exposure Condition on Paint on Steel Girder Bridges

A number of state departments of transportation (DOTs) have established bridge management systems (BMSs) to assist in prioritizing and optimizing bridge improvement programs within budgetary constraints. Several factors, including age, traffic, and environment, have been identified in current BMS literature as having a direct impact on the deterioration of bridge components or elements. However, no formal methodology—using bridge inspection data—exists to determine the effects of the environment. Estimating bridge element service lives without considering environmental effects may lead to biased estimates. Further, existing deterioration models are incapable of using the nonnumeric element level inspection data (G=good, F=fair, P=poor, and C=critical), which most state DOTs have been collecting for nearly 30 years per Federal Highway Administration guidelines. A methodology is proposed using statistical analysis to determine the effects of environmental regions on mean service life estimates of paint on steel girder bridges, using bridge inspection field data collected by bridge inspectors. The data were based on the nonnumeric condition appraisal (G-F-P-C) format used for a bridge element or protective system condition evaluation. The methodology proposed an environmental classification system and service life estimates for use in BMS programs.