Target proof load factors for highway bridge assessment in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC)

Abstract

As a part of the task of the EC 6th Framework Programme European Project ARCHES (Assessment and Rehabilitation of Central European Highway Structures), the paper proposes a simple method to obtain the target proof load that guarantees a required safety level on the bridge against the actual traffic. The proof load factors are obtained by means of a reliability-based calibration with 3 different safety levels. In this way, the bridge evaluator can choose the safety level to have in the bridge that has passed the proof load test. The calibration uses the traffic data obtained recently in 4 CEEC (Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic) with Weigh in Motion (WIM) techniques. The final result is a simple procedure based on charts and tables that a bridge evaluator without specific knowledge of reliability theory can easily apply.