Towards sustainable design of highway bridges

The design and preservation of bridges have been driven, for a long time, by the concerns tominimize costs and improve asset condition. The growing concerns for environmental protection and theshift towards achieving sustainable transportation infrastructure are now requiring the use of approaches thatseek to achieve an adequate balance between social, economic and environmental performance over the entirelife cycle of the bridge. This paper discusses some performance indicators, such as safety, serviceability,costs, traffic disruption, greenhouse gas emissions, which can be used for life cycle design of highwaybridges. An example, taken from the North American context, illustrates how different design and rehabilitation approaches can contribute to achieve the desirable balance between social, economic and environmental sustainability criteria.
IABMAS 2010: Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management and Life-Cycle Optimization: 11 July 2010, Philadelphia, USA