Life-Cycle-Cost-Based Bridge Management in the Netherlands

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The main reason for the existence of transportation systems is public interest. From this point of view, any road program should be driven by various societal aspects. In this paper societal aspects are schematized into two categories, public and politics. The position of the engineer responsible for bridge management within the road agency is described in general and elaborated for two fields important for bridge management: ‘reliability and structural safety’ and ‘maintenance’. The paper gives an overview of the discussion on these fields in the Netherlands. Key objectives are to establish open communication and to place this in a life-cycle perspective. The role of the managing authority is to create a coherent system having an interface to the societal domain.