Analytical tool to predict structural and serviceability-related repairs of multi-girder concrete bridges in Nova Scotia_x000d_ _x000d_

Canada's infrastructure deficit has been growing by about $2 billion a year over the past two decades as projected by a study commissioned by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in 2001. Infrastructure including the bridge inventory in Canada continues to deteriorate over time with 80 per cent of Canada's infrastructure is past its service life. In Nova Scotia, the estimated budget for bringing all bridges to sustainable condition is $210 million per year needed over 10 years, while the actual allocated annual budget to maintain, repair, and replace bridges is $45 million as reported by Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal in 2019. The challenge of having limited resources to repair and maintain bridges in Canada paired with a large infrastructure deficit initiate the need to develop robust tools to risk rank existing bridge inventory to prioritize bridge repairs. The objective of the present research is to develop an analytical user-friendly tool to predict the structural and serviceability-related repairs of existing multi-girder concrete bridges in Nova Scotia. The tool will be utilized to risk rank existing bridges in Nova Scotia. The following will be considered in developing the tool: (1) it will be designed to augment the current bridge inspection practice in Nova Scotia in updating existing bridge reliability; and (2) it will utilize deterioration models specific to Nova Scotia's weather conditions. The tool will be developed in four phases as follows: document review and field inspection of select bridges in Nova Scotia (Phase I), algorithm development (Phase II), software programming (Phase III), and risk ranking of select bridges in Nova Scotia (Phase IV). Four Highly Qualified Personal (HQPs) will be trained as part of this project in the specialized area of bridge evaluation and repair. The tool will be used by the partner organizations to evaluate and repair existing multi-girder concrete bridges in Nova Scotia.