Life-Cycle Costing Integration with Bridge Management Systems

Abstract

Many countries are using bridge management systems (BMSs) as the main toll for the effective management of their bridges. Although many BMSs contain some forms of life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), the use of LCCA in bridge engineering is scarce and LCCA has mainly been applied to support decisions related to existing bridges. This paper discuss the need of a BMS with an integrated LCCA tool that can assist decision makers at all levels and within all phases in selecting the most cost-effective solution from an array of applicable alternatives. The paper introduces the Swedish Bridge and Tunnel Management System (BaTMan). A comprehensive LCCA implementation scheme will be illustrated, taking into account the bridge investment and management process in Sweden. The basic LCCA analysis tools as well as other helpful techniques are addressed. A real case study is presented to demonstrate the recent improvement of BaTMan particularly in the function of specifying the most-cost effective bridge repair strategy. The bridge user cost is included in the LCCA. The parameters that can influence the final decision are addressed and sensitivity analyses to study their impacts are performed.