The Road Steel Bridge Over Bosut River in Serbia Part 1: The Assessment of the Bridge

Maintenance requirements for existing bridges outpace more and more available resources each day. Besides improved repair techniques, this situation emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to bridge management. An important activity in bridge maintenance is the inspection and assessment process, which includes determination of the general condition and structural safety of each bridge, as well as estimation of deterioration rates. Eventually, some idea of the structure repair can be determined. In this paper, the assessment of road steel bridge over Bosut river in Serbia was presented. During exploitation, numerous damages appeared on the bridge structural elements, mostly due to hundred years' old exploitation and inadequate maintenance of the bridge. In order to evaluate the real condition of the bridge structure and possibilities for further exploitation, the assessment of the bridge was carried out. The assessment included: detailed visual inspection of all accessible elements with registration of characteristic defects and damages, evaluation of incorporated materials quality, determination of the depth of cracks in the river piers and structural calculation according to current regulations for road bridges loads. Based on the results of both field and laboratory tests, it was concluded that the durability of bridge structure is significantly reduced, due to advanced corrosion process of steel material.