Does your agency recognize that preventive maintenance programs
increase the useful life of bridges?
Even if it does, most operational staff will say
that reactive repairs and bridge closures dominate their daily priorities.
And if responding to these complaints is done at the expense of essential preventive tasks,
such as removing debris or sealing or replacing leaking joints,
new and more costly problems will soon develop, making you feel like you are running in circles.
To gain forward momentum, operational staff at State and local levels are starting to develop
innovative approaches to tackling the problem of deferred maintenance with some encouraging results.
How about your agency?
Are you analyzing and piloting new approaches to maintenance,
or is it business as usual and at what impact to the inventory of bridges over time?
Here we’ll look at three strategies for adding preventive maintenance to your work routine
and follow one maintenance department as it develops its own pilot program.
As our first strategy, consider implementing short-term maintenance contracts
to perform bridge preservation activities rather than long-term construction contracts.
Maintenance contracts have several advantages.
First, they allow agencies to follow a more streamlined process for preparing and letting bids
which are managed by maintenance field staff.
By using experienced bridge maintenance workers to manage maintenance contracts,
agencies can expand their capacity for bridge preservation activities
and better control job quality.
Additionally, short term traffic closure standards can be applied to these smaller contracts
which result in less impact on traffic flow.
As an alternative to contracting, consider developing a crew of bridge preservation experts
who are knowledgeable in general preservation strategies
and the extensive details of bridge preservation work.
If you’re wondering where your department is going to find the time and money
for training and development, look to your State Department of Transportation,
and the Federal Highway Administration for guidance,
or contact your Local Technical Assistance Program, or LTAP.
LTAPs provide practical access to training at low to no cost to your agency.
And lastly, as an alternative to developing a general crew of bridge preservation experts,
consider creating specialized work crews that focus on a single preservation activity,
such as joint sealing or bridge washing.
The division of labor among crews can increase efficiency
and result in the completion of more preservation work.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or AASHTO,
places an emphasis on bridge preservation activities for bridges.
AASHTO has established a Transportation System Preservation Technical Service Program, or TSP2,
to support bridge preservation activities, which includes informal peer groups.
Let’s follow the experience of an agency’s maintenance department as it utilizes a peer group
and moves forward with an efficient use of bridge funds.
While attending the annual meeting of a Bridge Preservation Peer Group,
Greenville County’s bridge maintenance engineer
learned that nearby St. Clair County had recently piloted a new contracting process.
St. Clair’s new bridge deck sealing contract gave the agency flexibility when scheduling the work.
By focusing work on single corridors,
St. Clair County reduced both the cost of traffic control and inconvenience to the public.
Impressed with the results at St. Clair County, Greenville County’s bridge management engineer
collaborated with Greenville’s maintenance supervisor
to evaluate a similar strategy at their agency.
Together, they demonstrated to county leadership that a maintenance contract with flexible scheduling
would likely result in more timely bridge preservation activities
and an anticipated improvement in the overall bridge network condition over time.
County leadership approved the proposed plan and allocated the funding for a pilot program.
The success with a new contracting process has led the bridge management engineer and
maintenance supervisor to develop additional plans to improve the useful life
of the bridge network within their jurisdiction.
They intend to:
Research additional innovative and cost-effective ways to
preserve bridge conditions from the AASHTO website.
Analyze the cost and benefit to the bridge network of various strategies over time,
And, make further recommendations and proposals for funding to county leadership.
The bridge maintenance engineer is optimistic this proposed approach will reduce
reactive repairs and bridge closures over time.
Our example illustrates the benefits of:
Participating in the Bridge Preservation Peer Group or other professional associations,
Tracking and evaluating results,
And, communicating your organization’s role in solving the problem of deferred maintenance.
Does your maintenance department already have a bridge preservation program in place?
If not, reach out to peer agencies who have successfully implemented a program
to see how they got started.
Planning for and applying preservation activities as a regular part of your maintenance work
can keep you moving forward with limited budgets and keep your bridged in better shape.