Analysis of Bridge Health Index for the City and County of Denver, Colorado

The current Bridge Health Index (BHI) in the Pontis Bridge Management System applied to assess the health conditions for bridges located in the City and County of Denver (CCD) does not provide an accurate analysis of the health condition of its relatively small bridge network. The first stage of this study explores both the calculation results and the computing methodology of the current BHI. It was concluded that the current BHI is subjective to a municipality's often imprecise cost data. The first stage of this study developed an alternate diagnostic tool, the Denver Bridge Health Index (DBHI). It has already been adopted in the Pontis BMS of the CCD Public Works Department. In order to utilize the DBHI to provide the CCD engineers valuable references in maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) decision making, the second stage of this study examines both the calculation results and the computing methodology of the DBHI. It was concluded that the current health index coefficients (ks and ks N) do not reflect actual deterioration levels of the condition states. The second stage of this study was to develop a historical inspection data based-methodology to determine the actual ks (ks J&R) coefficients for the current Pontis Bridge Management System.