Course Description
This course is a guide for the inspection, maintenance, and repair of bridges. It is a source of reference for planning, estimating, and technical accomplishment of maintenance and repair work and may serve as a training manual for facilities maintenance personnel engaged in maintenance inspection and repair of bridges. Students will read through TM 5-600 Bridge Inspection, Maintenance, and Repair manual issued by the Joint Departments of the Army and the Air Force.
This course will discuss maintenance planning, inspector qualifications, bridge structures, bridge elements, mechanics of bridges, fracture critical members, inspections, maintenance, repair, and upgrades for steel, timber, and concrete bridges. It also describes the methods used in accomplishing this maintenance and repair work. This course includes general principles of maintenance and repair for use by all activities designated to maintain bridges in a condition suitable for their intended use.
Course Outline
1. Introduction
2. Bridge Structures
3. Bridge Elements
4. Mechanics of Bridges
5. Bridge Construction Materials
6. Bridge Redundancy and Fracture Critical Members
7. Inspection Considerations
8. Bridge Component Inspections
9. Final Documentation
10. General Preventive Maintenance, Repair, and Upgrade
11. Steel Bridge Maintenance, Repair, and Upgrade
12. Timber Bridge Maintenance, Repair, and Upgrade
13. Concrete Bridge Maintenance, Repair, and Upgrade
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course you will:
• Understanding how to plan and execute a thorough bridge inspection program
• Considering the particular aspect of the bridge to be inspected such as the material and structural features
• Listing specific problems which the inspection team should look for
• Providing a sequence in which the various bridge components should be examined
• Recommending additional and thorough (time-consuming) inspection procedures to be followed when problems are initially identified
• Prescribing requirements for reporting the results of the inspection
• Understanding the different requirements of specified interval maintenance, as-needed maintenance, replacement, repair, and upgrading for most types of bridges (except suspension bridges)
• Learning about procedures appropriate for repairing and strengthening a wide variety of components such as abutments, piers and bents, concrete beams and girders, floor systems, trusses, bearings, and decks
• Familiarizing with the standard techniques for handling cracking, spalling, corrosion, rotting, foundation degradation, and other evidence of deterioration
• Learning about procedures for upgrading existing bridges to expand their capacity
