Citation

Birdsall J, Hajdin R. Transp. Res. Circular 2008; (E-C128): 339-355.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, U.S. National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Current infrastructure management approaches have been developed to manage gradual deterioration (e.g., corrosion). Gradual deterioration risks are kept sufficiently low on assumption that preventative interventions will be performed before the probability of failure becomes unacceptable. This assumption is not applicable to potential sudden events (e.g., extreme floods). The proposed vulnerability approach for Pontis, the Hydraulic Vulnerability Assessment Program developed by the New York State Department of Transportation, is applied to evaluate three bridges. This case study demonstrates that this is a feasible method for identifying bridges exposed to hydraulic risks that warrant immediate or future vulnerability mitigations. This approach’s limited scope, addressing only bridge components exposed to hydraulic hazards, and its qualitative nature render cross-component comparisons and estimation of mitigation intervention funds difficult. A more comprehensive vulnerability assessment approach employing recently developed hazard and component databases to quantitatively assess the vulnerability of a broader set of components (bridges, roadways, and culverts) to a wider range of hazards (avalanches, debris flows, floods, landslides, and rockfalls) is presented. This approach documents potential component hazard failure scenarios, identifies common component failure modes, and develops a structured methodology for assessing the potential component failure modes. The same case study is reanalyzed with the comprehensive approach to illuminate undocumented roadway and highway risks and to calculate the annual risks for the corresponding road link. This comprehensive vulnerability assessment approach is a quantitative, broader, and more transparent alternative in comparison to the Hydraulic Vulnerability Assessment Program for assessing the vulnerability of a given transportation infrastructure system.