Ohio Bridge Condition Index: Multilevel Cost-Based Performance Index for Bridge Systems

Ohio has one of the largest portfolios of transportation assets with the second largest number of bridges in the United States. These bridges, of varying ages, comprise diverse configurations and structural features and are exposed to various environmental conditions and service loads. These factors, among others, pose a significant challenge in evaluating the performance of these assets and managing their safety and serviceability. This paper presents a practical and efficient measure called the bridge condition index (BCI) for the reliable condition assessment of Ohio bridges through the effective use of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s bridge databases. The Ohio BCI (OBCI) is intended to evaluate bridges at the element, component, bridge, and network levels and reflect the impact on the condition of the system of existing defects as well as maintenance, repair, and replacement actions for the condition enhancement of individual elements. To compare the direct and indirect consequences to users and agencies of various condition states of bridges, a unified metric based on cost is proposed for the OBCI formulation. This index is demonstrated for a real bridge in Ohio. To examine the efficiency of the OBCI, the results are compared with the bridge health index, which is a common bridge performance metric. The proposed metric can assist in the proper maintenance of transportation systems and effectively enhance their efficiency, safety, and capacity.