Sustainable Bridges: Tillämpning av erfarenheter från ett EU-projekt

Rapport, 2005

The aim of the present project is to systematically collect, analyse and maintain knowledge about the demography of the present European stock of railway bridges and of its weaknesses and identified problems. The intention is to further analyse, develop and use this knowledge as a basis for improved design and construction methods of new bridges in Sweden, railway bridges as well as road bridges. Basic background data is collected within the European project “Sustainable Bridges”, funded by the European Commission within its sixth framework programme, where the project members are actively participating in areas of strategic importance. Background data regarding the Swedish bridges is collected also through the recently launched Swedish bridge management system BaTMaN, which is developed, owned and managed by the Swedish Road Administration and The Swedish Railway Authorities. The results of the present project (enhanced methods for design, improved detailing, proposals for amendments to standards etc) may be directly applied by contractors and design consultants and will be beneficial to the end users of the products, i.e. the owners of the bridges. The activities within “Sustainable Bridges” have, since the project started 1st of December 2003, been focused on a superficial identification of “lack of knowledge”, as defined by the European railway owners. A mapping of the European bridge demography has been carried out and is reported together with a specification of the most frequent problems of the existing bridges. Development work for enhanced assessment methods and improved methods for inspection and monitoring of the bridges has started. In the next phases of “Sustainable Bridges” the activities will be concentrated on the identified problem areas and the degree of detailing will at the same time be increased. The identified problem areas, as specified by the European railway owners, appear to be very similar to the needs of the Swedish bridge owners in spite of the fact that the studied bridges are geographically distributed over all Europe and its major climate zones. The same conclusion is valid for the defined improvement areas. It may therefore be assumed that the results achieved within “Sustainable Bridges” will be highly relevant for further development and application also to Swedish bridges and to the construction of new Swedish bridges. This report is the first report in a series of four reports, which will be produced over a period of four years, provided that continued funding is raised.