General Considerations

This chapter discusses aspects that should be considered prior to every load test. The first questions that needs to be answered are “Is this bridge suitable for load testing?” and “If so, what are the goals of the load test?” To answer these questions, information must be gathered and preliminary calculations should be carried out. In order to evaluate if a bridge is suitable for load testing, different types of testing are shown, the topic of when to load test a bridge is discussed, and structure type considerations are debated. Finally, some safety precautions that should be fulfilled during a load test are discussed