BrIM based bridge operations and management

The design, construction, subsequent service life operations and management phases in a bridge life cycle have become increasingly dependent upon information management. Information to be managed is of various types: engineering analysis and design, methods/techniques of construction, contracting methods used for project delivery, day-to-day operational practices such as inspections, load rating, permitting and routing, project and network level planning and programming to meet financial, personnel, equipment, and contractual needs. An innovative concept, "Bridge Information Modeling" (acronym "BrIM"), was first introduced in 2005 by co-authors Shirole' and Chen. It facilitates an integrated cost-effective approach to the management all phases of bridge life. This paper describes and illustrates a bridge information model based approach to demonstrate how recently developed software linkages to existing commercial software utilize a BrIM "Data Pool" to accomplish a variety of operational activities, such as load rating, routing and permitting. It also demonstrates the use of a BrIM Data Pool for project and network level bridge inspection, reporting, as well as planning and programming of maintenance, repair, rehabilitation and replacement activities. Further, the paper discusses how in an integrated lifecycle environment envisioned herein, having the same model shared between design (checking) and load rating is a potentially significant advantage. Bridge data (e.g., girder section data, material properties etc) thus need not be re-entered in order to conduct load-rating, and multiple copies of such data do not proliferate and thereby require disambiguation. Updates (e.g., section loss) to the data have clearly defined access mechanisms and are reflected in the increasingly widely used AASHTO Ware (Bridge Ware) database. For electronic data exchange purposes, that database is, in turn, accessible via either XML or the Bridge Ware API (Application Programming Interface) which have been defined and designed to facilitate 3 ^rd - party access to the bridge data in order to leverage it for various purposes.