Bridge inspections to ensure safety

Engineering consultancy pitt&sherry has delivered a comprehensive inspection of more than 250 timber and concrete bridges to Shoalhaven City Council in New South Wales using its BridgeAsyst software package.

The council plans to use the information gathered through this project to make informed maintenance decisions on its bridges.

As the condition of many Australian bridges deteriorates, monitoring, inspection and maintenance become important aspects of ensuring the maximum life of a structure, and for reliable and safe transport systems.

According to the NSW Transport Roads & Maritime Services (RMS), road freight is expected to almost double by 2030, making investment into its road network vital to meet increased demand.

Addressing the state’s deficient bridges is a key priority for the NSW Government as these structures currently present the most critical restrictions to growing freight.

By engaging pitt&sherry, Shoalhaven City Council took the initiative to update the data around its bridge structures, most of which are 30-40 years old, for current and future assessment.

The project involved pitt&sherry’s engineers using the BridgeAsyst software on tablet computers to complete Level 2 inspections on each bridge structure. 

Using BridgeAsyst, a bridge management system designed by pitt&sherry to reliably manage future expenditure programs for bridge structures, the inspections found that the majority of the structures in the Shoalhaven area were in fair to good condition.

The audit of its structures provides the council with a better understanding of the condition of its assets, a clear direction on how to rehabilitate defects with the bridges, and the data required for predicting the future condition of the bridges.

Andrew Sonnenberg, bridge engineering manager at pitt&sherry, said it was vital for bridges to be routinely inspected by qualified engineers using a bridge management software package that reliably identified significant defects.

“By engaging our qualified bridge engineers, instead of standard bridge inspectors, Shoalhaven City Council has been provided with a better understanding of the structural consequences of the types of defects being observed and how critical they are to the structure’s performance,” Sonnenberg said.

“Decisions about a bridge’s future will now be made in a more reliable way.”