Multiway Analysis of bridge structural types in the National Bridge Inventory (NBI): A tensor decomposition approach

The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) has detailed information on over 600,000 bridges nationwide. The data, which spans a period of more than 20 years can be very useful for analyzing and modeling bridge performance. Previous analysis methods employ a 2-dimensional view of data which may result in the loss of subtle trends and changes in the data. Bridge data is inherently multidimensional and as such there is an added advantage in analyzing it in its natural multidimensional state. This paper focuses on the use of a multiway data analysis approach known as tensor decomposition to analyze the structural deficiency rate with respect to states, bridge structural types and time. The tensor decomposition approach is able to reveal clusters and patterns which are not easily perceptible when using conventional statistical tools.