PSI - Issue 78

Giuseppe Santarsiero et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 78 (2026) 560–567

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comparison of the degradation of several bridges belonging to an inventory. Moreover, an important result is relevant to the bridge within the variability of degradation. For instance, bridges 4 and 6 showed different degradation of edge beams compared to the internal one. Bridge 4 exhibited higher degradation on external beams due to the poor condition of the water drainage system, while bridge 6 is affected by heavier degradation of internal beams due to the poor or absent waterproofing system of the slab. This latter underscores the need for different kinds of intervention for the two bridges and in general for bridges with degradation accumulation on specific elements. The analysis also allowed for the identification of the overall priority in the bridge group. In fact, the analysis revealed that some bridges, particularly Bridges 1 and 5, exhibit significantly higher levels of deterioration despite being classified with only Medium or Medium-High Class of Attention (CoA, according to the 2020 Italian Guidelines) with respect to bridges with higher CoA values. This discrepancy confirms that current CoA assignments based on the worst element degradation may not be representative of the intervention urgency among a group of bridges, especially for structures equipped with post-tensioned prestressed reinforced concrete beams, whose stability and safety are dominated by the internal cable condition degradation. In these bridges, in fact, the degradation of beams should have a higher weight with respect to other elements. In summary, even in the absence of a specific prioritisation criterion defined by the Italian Guidelines, the careful and in-depth analysis of inspection data could provide insightful indications on prioritisation criteria at both within structure and inventory levels. This may be the basis on which road manager could find their decision-making process regarding intervention for the risk reduction of infrastructure systems. Acknowledgements This research is funded by CSLLPP (High Council of Public Works as part of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation) in the framework of the agreement with the ReLUIS consortium for the research project “Accordo attuativo del DM 578 del 2020 a 204 del 2022”, WP4, Task 4.1 “Bridge durability problems”. References Aykac S., Kalkan I., Aykac B., Karahan S., Kayar S., 2013. Strengthening and Repair of Reinforced Concrete Beams Using External Steel Plates, Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 139, no. 6. 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