CONCRETE BRIDGE ENGINEERING Performance and Advances

Edited By R J Cope

Nine chapters by a group of authors run from site investigation to assessment, repair, thermal response, structural types, and joints and substructures.

On-site investigation of concrete bridges may be necessary for a wide range of reasons which will generally be associated with assessment of either specification compliance, maintenance requirements or structural adequacy.

Establishing the precise aims of inspection and testing is an essential prerequisite to all test programme planning including fundamental aspects such as selection of methods, location of test points and interpretation of results. On-site inspection and testing, other than superficial visual inspection, is seldom cheap as complex access arrangements are frequently necessary and procedures may be time-consuming.

Furthermore, individual observations or test results are often inconclusive, and back-up testing coupled with considerable engineering judgement and experience are then required.