The Road to Better Bridges:
Strategies for Maintaining Infrastructure
BY
Nicole Martino, Ph.D.
Roger Williams University
2015
INFRASTRUCTURE
2015
REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS
WILL EXPANDING MEDICAID HELP THE ECONOMY?
50 Park Row West, Suite 100
Providence, RI 02903
www.collaborativeri.org
Amber Caulkins
Program Director
[email protected]
401.588.1792
The College & University Research Collaborative (The Collaborative)
is a statewide public/private partnership of Rhode Island’s 11 colleges
and universities that connects public policy and academic research. The
Collaborative’s mission is to increase the use of non-partisan academic
research in policy development and to provide an evidence-based
foundation for government decision-making. The Collaborative turns
research into action by sharing research with policymakers, community
leaders, partner organizations, and the citizens of Rhode Island.
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
WORKFORCE
The Economic Benefits of a Flexible Workplace
by Barbara Silver, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island
The Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Needed for Growing Occupations in Rhode Island
by Matthew Bodah, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island
Nicole Martino, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Engineering in
the School of Engineering, Computing and Construction Management
at Roger Williams University. She
earned her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from
Northeastern University.
Her academic areas of specialty
include structural analysis and design of concrete and steel structures. Her research interests focus
on the ability to understand the
various stages of reinforced concrete bridge deck deterioration using electromagnetic, electrochemical, and mechanical nondestructive
evaluation techniques, and has
presented and published many papers in this topic area. The ultimate
goal of her research is to develop a
tool, user friendly to transportation
agencies, that can immediately and
accurately assess the internal composition of bridge decks.
Preparing Rhode Island’s Workforce for the Jobs of the Future
by Elzotbek Rustambekov, Ph.D., Bryant University
Rhode Island Unemployment: Is There Labor Market Mismatch?
by Neil Mehrotra, Ph.D., Brown University
INFRASTRUCTURE
Improving Infrastructure through Public Private Partnerships
by Amine Ghanem, Ph.D., Roger Williams University
Millennials on the Move: Attracting Young Workers through Better Transportation
by Jonathan Harris, M.I.D., Johnson & Wales University
The Road to Better Bridges: Strategies for Maintaining Infrastructure
by Nicole Martino, Ph.D., Roger Williams University
REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS
Choosing a Health Exchange for Rhode Island
by Jessica Mulligan, Ph.D., Providence College
The Economic Impact of Expanding Medicaid
by Liam Malloy, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island; Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, Ph.D., University of
Rhode Island
Ensuring Paid Family Leave Pays Off
by Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island
Rachel-Lyn Longo, Student Researcher, University of Rhode Island
Strategies for a Competitive Rhode Island
by Suchandra Basu, Ph.D., Rhode Island College; Ramesh Mohan, Ph.D., Bryant University; Joseph
Roberts, Ph.D., Roger Williams University
MANUFACTURING
Rhode Island’s Maker-Related Assets
by Dawn Edmondson, M.S., New England Institute of Technology; Susan Gorelick, Ph.D., New England
Institute of Technology; Beth Mosher, MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
WILL EXPANDING MEDICAID HELP THE ECONOMY?
The Road to Better Bridges:
Strategies for Maintaining Infrastructure
NICOLE MARTINO, PH.D., ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY
A considerable number of Rhode Island’s 765 highway bridges
FIG. 1 CONDITION OF RI BRIDGES
are in need of repair.(a) According to the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA), the condition of the state’s bridges
is the worst in the nation.1 More than one in five bridges are
FUNCTIONALLY
OBSOLETE
56.5%
classified as structurally deficient and therefore in need of
“significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement.”2
STRUCTURALLY
Many Rhode Island residents are well aware of these
conditions as they make their daily commutes, drive to the
store, or pick up their children from school. What they may
not know is that potholes and bumpy roads are more than just
an inconvenience: these unpleasant road conditions increase
DEFICIENT
Source: American Society of Civil Engineers 2
(a) Highway bridges are
bridges that span more than
20 feet.
vehicular maintenance costs, compromise safety, and hamper
economic growth.
Percentage of Bridges
FIG. 2 PERCENTAGE OF BRIDGES THAT ARE STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT OR FUNCTIONALLY OBSOLETE
Source: American Society of Civil Engineers 2
The Collaborative | March 2015
2
THE ROAD TO BETTER BRIDGES: STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING INFRASTRUCTURE
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that driving on roads in poor condition
costs an extra $444 per driver in annual vehicle
repair and operation costs.3 By stymieing transportation, poor infrastructure is also responsible
for lost jobs, diminished exports, and a reduced
standard of living.4 In Rhode Island, for example,
businesses and commercial industry that require
ground transportation of heavy freight have felt
this impact as they have had to reroute delivery
trucks due to reduced allowed weight on bridges
in key locations along I-95. Altogether, in 2010,
deficient bridges and roads were estimated to cost
the U.S. $10 billion annually, and that figure is
expected to rise to $58 billion by 2020.4
FIG. 3 THE COST AND IMPACT OF POOR INFRASTRUCTURE
38hrs
Each year, commuters spend
an average of 38 hours stuck in
traffic.
444
$
Roads needing repair cost
American drivers $94B per year.
That’s $444 per motorist!
1060
$
The average American family
will spend over $1,060 each year
through 2020 because of declining
transportation infrastructure
according to the ASCE.
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF FAILING U.S. TRANSPORATION INFRASTRUCTURE BY 2020
877K
America would lose 877,000 jobs
Source: American Society of Civil Engineers3
3
The Collaborative | March 2015
28B
$
U.S. exports would drop by $28 billion
THE ROAD TO BETTER BRIDGES: STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING INFRASTRUCTURE
FIG. 4 STATE TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS INTERVIEWED
(b) States were chosen for
the survey based on having
a low percentage of their
bridges (between 3% and 9%
compared to 23% in Rhode
Island) ranked as structurally
deficient by FHWA in 2014.1
The first four states were
chosen because they, like
Rhode Island, have to deal
with significant snowfall
every year. Arizona has little
snow but does have one of the
lowest rates of structurally
deficient bridges in the
country.
Repairing bridges and keeping them in good condition requires funding
and resources. How can Rhode Island improve its bridge infrastructure in
an efficient and cost-effective way?
One approach is to learn from the practices of
states whose bridges are ranked among the best
in the nation by the FHWA. This article presents
results from a telephone survey conducted with
transportation officials from bridge inspection
and management divisions in five of those states
– Utah, Wisconsin, Montana, Illinois, and Arizona – as well as officials in Rhode Island.(b) The
officials were asked about bridge inspection techniques, data management and analysis approaches, maintenance and preservation practices, and
funding mechanisms. Lessons from these surveys
may help Rhode Island improve its bridge inspection, classification, and maintenance practices.(c)
IMPROVING INSPECTION PRACTICES
Regular, thorough inspections are necessary to
determine the condition of bridges and identify those in need of repair. All states, including
Rhode Island, must follow the minimum inspection practices required by the FHWA, one
of them being that visual inspections have to be
conducted every two years. Inspectors look for
signs of deterioration like cracking and spalling,
in which potholes form due to crumbling concrete or asphalt. The inspectors then rate each
bridge element according to FHWA’s National
Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS),5 sometimes
supplemented with additional state standards.(d)
(c) A total of five officials
from outside Rhode Island
were interviewed, one in each
state. The officials were from
bridge management agencies
within the state departments
of transportation, and their
titles ranged from Chief
Bridge Maintenance Engineer
to Bureau Chief to Project
Manager.
(d) Rhode Island’s bridge
inspection manual6 draws
on the Manual for Bridge
Evaluation from the American
Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO) for guidance on
federal standards.7 It also
draws from Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and
Pennsylvania state standards.
The Collaborative | March 2015
4
THE ROAD TO BETTER BRIDGES: STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING INFRASTRUCTURE
Inspection teams are managed by engineers who
meet FHWA qualifications regarding education,
training, and experience in bridge inspection.5 In
Rhode Island, inspectors are often outside consultants who specialize in evaluating and rating
bridges.
While visual inspections are helpful, they can
only identify damage that is obvious on the surface of a bridge, especially the deck (the bridge
roadway). My survey of states with high-quality
bridge infrastructure found that they often incorporate more advanced techniques into their bridge
inspection practices, and are developing plans to
bring these techniques into their regular, biannual
inspections. The techniques, including ground
penetrating radar, impact echo, ultrasonic methods, and infrared thermography, can determine if
there is damage inside the deck and even estimate
how severe that damage may be.8 Damage usually develops in the subsurface of a structure long
before it becomes apparent on the outer surface of
the bridge deck. Finding this damage before it is
visible and repairing it at an early stage can save
money and promote public safety.
In addition to using more advanced inspection
techniques, states with bridges in good condition also implement rigorous quality control procedures to ensure that their bridges are properly
inspected. For example, Utah hosts a collaborative
review once per year, wherein each of its in-house
inspectors reviews the same bridge. All of their
inspection reports are compared and analyzed for
discrepancies, so procedural improvements for the
next year of inspections can be appropriately developed and implemented. Other quality control
measures used by states include auditing 1% of
inspection reports, independently reviewing 3% of
inspections, and having inspectors review different bridges from year to year. These measures also
serve as a form of training for bridge inspectors,
providing feedback on their inspection techniques
and decision making. Thus, states with more rigorous quality control procedures may end up with
more experienced, well-trained inspectors.
CLASSIFYING BRIDGES & PRIORITIZING REPAIRS
Information gleaned from bridge inspections must be organized and
analyzed in order to accurately classify the condition of a state’s bridges.
The results of the analysis are used to determine
which bridges need repair, what kinds of repairs
are necessary, and how urgently the repairs are
needed.9 Many states, including Rhode Island, log
their inspection data into a data management program called AASHTOWare Bridge Management
(formerly known as PONTIS), which will also incorporate a data analysis component in the future.
However, four out of the five high-performing
states I surveyed have their own custom databases
and/or repair prioritization systems that they developed in-house.
5
The Collaborative | March 2015
Prioritization systems classify bridges in a variety
of ways, but categories are typically based on the
NBIS rating of the structure’s current condition
and the length of time the bridge has maintained
that rating. Bridge classification also factors in
the return on investment of any potential repairs, which is an estimate of how long the repairs
would extend the bridge’s service life and how
much money they would save as a result, balanced
against the estimated cost of the repairs. Based
on these classification factors, decisions are made
about if, when, and how different bridges should
be repaired.
THE ROAD TO BETTER BRIDGES: STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING INFRASTRUCTURE
The high-performing states I surveyed have innovative methods for organizing and prioritizing
repairs based on the status of their bridges. In order to use repair funding in the most efficient way
possible, some states bundle similar projects to
save money. For example, if multiple bridge decks
need to have their overlay (the asphalt or concrete
surface) replaced, the state may pay one company
to do them all at once, instead of repairing one
deck and then going through the whole process
again for another deck the following year. By acting early, states can also opt to select a contractor
based on who will make the repairs at the lowest
cost, rather than in the quickest time.
PROMOTING PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE
While it is natural to focus on the bridges that are in the worst shape,
preventive maintenance of bridges at all levels can be much more
cost-effective than waiting until a bridge needs major repairs or even
replacement.10
The proper maintenance of bridges can also extend
their service life, meaning that the scheduled replacement date the structure was designed for can
be pushed back for up to 25 years. With this in
mind, some of the states I surveyed require biannual cleaning of any drains and joints in the bridge
structure, sealing of cracks, and sweeping, washing,
and sealing the deck. These forms of maintenance
help keep the bridge deck and structure in good
condition and prevent certain types of damage.
Funding for bridge maintenance has traditionally
come from car registration fees and gas taxes. Al-
though these are the primary funding sources for
maintenance in Rhode Island, according to officials, the state currently only earmarks 1 out of
every 17 cents from these sources for maintenance
– the rest goes to the general fund. In contrast,
most states I surveyed channel most or all of the
money raised from registration fees and gas taxes
specifically for maintenance. However, preventive maintenance has become a higher priority in
Rhode Island, as the state recently invested $5 million in bridge maintenance and repairs along the
I-95 corridor, and is looking into ways to ensure
maintenance funds are spent effectively.11
FIG. 5 HOW REVENUE FROM CAR REGISTRATION FEES AND GAS TAXES IS SPENT IN RHODE ISLAND
General Fund
Maintenance
The Collaborative | March 2015
6
THE ROAD TO BETTER BRIDGES: STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING INFRASTRUCTURE
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF RHODE ISLAND’S BRIDGES
(e) While federal funding
is still not available for
many types of general
maintenance, such as deck
sweeping and drain cleaning,
other specific preventive
maintenance measures
are eligible for funding. For
example, funding can be used
to repair deteriorated areas
within the deck before the
damage advances to a point
where it is visible on the outer
surface.
Given the current condition of many roads and
bridges in the U.S., the national focus is beginning
to shift towards preventive maintenance and repair. Historically, because federal funding was only
available for major repairs or replacements, some
states did little in the way of preventive maintenance – it was more cost-effective to simply let
bridges deteriorate until they became eligible to
be replaced using federal funds. However, 2012
changes to highway funding policies, known as
MAP-21, now permit states to request federal
funding for certain types of bridge preservation
measures.12 In response, states are developing their
own bridge preservation and maintenance policies
and are implementing research projects with the
underlying goal of slowing bridge deck deterioration.(e)
The bridge infrastructure throughout the state of Rhode Island is in poor
condition and will continue to worsen if preventive measures are not taken.
Summarized below are the tactics used by the states I surveyed to keep their
bridge structures in an acceptable condition:
Advanced inspection technologies that can detect
damage early
Quality control measures to ensure the accuracy
of inspections and serve as additional training for
inspectors
Advanced systems for managing and organizing
inspection data
Innovative approaches to prioritizing repairs
Preventive maintenance measures to extend
bridge life span
7
The Collaborative | March 2015
THE ROAD TO BETTER BRIDGES: STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING INFRASTRUCTURE
Approaches like these can not only improve the condition of bridge
infrastructure, making driving safer and more pleasurable, but can also
save money in the long run. Through system-wide innovation, Rhode Island
has the potential to one day become a national leader in the area of bridge
infrastructure.
The Collaborative | March 2015
8
WILL EXPANDING MEDICAID HELP THE ECONOMY?
ENDNOTES
1.
Federal Highway Administration (2014) Deficient Bridges by State and Highway System, 1992-2014 [data files],
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation.
2.
American Society of Civil Engineers (2013) “2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure: Rhode Island,” Reston, VA.
3.
American Society of Civil Engineers (2015) “Fix the Trust Fund,” Reston, VA [website accessed Feb. 11, 2015].
4.
Economic Development Research Group (2011) “Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in
Surface Transportation Infrastructure,” Washington, D.C.: American Society of Civil Engineers.
5.
Federal Highway Administration (2012) “Bridge Inspector’s Reference Manual,” Pub. FHWA NHI 12-049, Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation.
6.
Rhode Island Department of Transportation (2013) “Bridge Inspection Manual,” Providence, RI.
7.
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (2011) “Manual for Bridge Evaluation,” 2nd
edition, Washington, D.C.
8.
Nenad Gucunski, Arezoo Imani, Francisco Romero, Soheil Nazarian, Deren Yuan, Herbert Wiggenhauser, Parisa
Shokouhi, Alexander Taffe, and Doria Kutrubes (2013) “Nondestructive Testing to Identify Concrete Bridge Deck
Deterioration,” Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board.
9.
For more on how bridges are classified and repairs are prioritized, see: Michael Markow and William Albert Hyman
(2009) “Bridge Management Systems for Transportation Agency Decision Making: A Synthesis of Practice,”
Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board.
10. Federal Highway Administration (2011) “Bridge Preservation Guide,” Pub. FHWA-HIF-11042, Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Department of Transportation.
11. Rhode Island Department of Transportation (2013) “Governor Chafee, RIDOT Announce Beginning of Bridge
Preservation Program [press release],” Providence, RI, April 5.
12. Federal Highway Administration (2012) “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21): A Summary of
Highway Provisions,” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Collaborative was developed in response to calls from the Governor’s
office, public officials, and community leaders to leverage the research
capacity of the state’s 11 colleges and universities and to provide nonpartisan research for informed economic policy decisions.
50 Park Row West, Suite 100
Providence, RI 02903
www.collaborativeri.org
Amber Caulkins
Program Director
[email protected]
401.588.1792
Following the Make It Happen RI economic development summit, the Rhode
Island Foundation committed funding for the creation of The Collaborative. As
a proactive community and philanthropic leader, the Foundation recognized
The Collaborative as an opportunity for public and private sectors to work
together to improve the quality of life for all Rhode Island residents. In FY
2013, the State of Rhode Island matched the Foundation’s funding, viewing
The Collaborative as a cost-effective approach to leverage the talent and
resources in the state for the development of sustainable economic policy.
Rhode Island’s 11 colleges and universities agreed to partner with The
Collaborative, and the presidents from each institution formed the Leadership
Team. A Panel of Policy Leaders was appointed by the Governor’s office,
the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and the Rhode Island Senate
to represent both the executive branch and the legislative branch of state
government. This panel is responsible for coming to consensus on research
areas of importance to Rhode Island.
PARTNERS
Footnote is an online media outlet that expands the reach of academic expertise by translating it
into accessible, engaging content for targeted audiences. It offers readers concise, compelling
articles that highlight influential thought leadership from top colleges and universities. Footnote
editors Diana Brazzell and Diana Gitig collaborated with the researcher on the writing and editing
of this brief.
Nami Studios is a creative services consultancy, offering strategic design for marketing, data
visualization for communications, and interactive user experiences. Through our partnership
with Nami Studios, we enhance our articles with enlightening and interactive visualizations of the
research data.
ADMINISTERED BY
FUNDED BY
The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island is an alliance
representing the eight independent institutions of higher learning within the State of Rhode Island.
Designed to address common interests and concerns of independent colleges and universities
within the state, the Association serves as the collective and unified voice of its member
institutions.
For questions and more information about
The Collaborative, please visit
collaborativeri.org
2015
INFRASTRUCTURE
2015
REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS