Characteristic traffic load effects from a mixture of loading events on short to medium span bridges

In recent years, highway bridge load assessment has been recognised as an area through which savings can be made by avoiding unnecessary bridge refurbishment and replacement. Load effects in bridges result from single truck crossings or multiple-truck presence events which are, statistically, not identically distributed. Conventional approaches fit statistical distributions to mixtures of non-identically distributed load effects. Inaccuracies in the conventional approach are identified and an alternative approach is developed to find the characteristic load effects. Theoretical and field data are used to show the potential implications of conventional techniques and to demonstrate the application of the new approach.