Guideline for Inspection and Condition Assessment of Existing European Railway Bridges, SB-ICA , Sustainable Bridges : Including advices on the use of non-destructive testing.

The guideline SB-ICA Inspection, and Condition Assessment presents new and enhanced tools, equipment and procedures for railway bridge inspection and condition assessment to achieve the objectives of the project. The Guideline SB-ICA Inspection and Condition Assessment with three annexes summarizes and completes the technical research work described in technical deliverables D3.2 to D3.14, available as background documents. The guideline also refers to UIC-documents, national standards and results of research done so far in international research. The guideline is prepared to transfer the latest research results to the end users, the European railway infrastructure departments. The technical deliverables, attached as background documents to this guideline, describe the research, which focussed on the following topics: - Basic research for appropriate non-destructive testing methods to be used by the railways in refined inspection and condition assessment of reinforced concrete, steel and masonry arch bridges as well as for the investigation of foundations and subsoil, - Development of procedures for effective condition assessment and defect appraisal, - Enhancing the applicability of non-destructive inspection tools to railway bridges with focus on the compatibility with the railway infrastructure, - The application to railway bridges includes both, the reviews of techniques and methods (state of the art) and latest research, e.g. automation of acoustic imaging techniques, advanced image data processing for results obtained from different NDT-measurement (data fusion, data reconstruction), - Development of automated equipment for faster operating onsite measurements with high geometrical accuracy, which is a precondition for super positioning of data obtained from different methods and different measurements, - A proposal for classification of defects, description of deterioration, defect location. - Finite element modelling of RC-deterioration processes and degradation by corrosion. Based on refined information from inspections about the current condition of the bridge elements, an entire bridge and the capability of the bridge stock along a railway line has to be assessed in a fast and unique way, e.g. in order to allow new train types, increase of train frequency, transfer of higher loads or higher speed. The guideline on inspection and condition assessment presents tools to update bridge documentation, which is some times insufficient, inaccurate or incomplete. Systematic application of repeatable procedures are presented, which are using new tools with high degree of geometrical accuracy. Advanced technologies help also to follow time dependent processes and to alleviate the effects of the loss of operational experience of retiring workers. Research for better inspection and condition assessment tools for the railway infrastructure, e.g. using Non-Destructive testing methods was concentrated on gaps, identified in the first phase of the project. The analysis of the bridge stock by the partner railways in WP1 revealed that steel and masonry arch bridges need to be incorporated into the scope of the project. Following this advice, the guideline for inspection and condition assessment covers inspection of reinforced concrete, steel and masonry arch bridges, as well as testing of subsoil and foundation. This guideline proposes inspection and condition assessment tools to get comparable description of the railway infrastructure condition in different countries of the European Community. The work also revealed the need of common terminology, a database for defects and a database with applicable non-destructive testing methods in single page information.Sustainable Bridges - Assessment for Traffic Demands and Longer Live