Models for evaluating the costs of bridge failure

One of the key factors in evaluating the risk level of a structure such as a bridge should be an examination of the failure consequences, considering that the risk equals the probability of failure times the consequences of failure. In the present study, possible failure consequences of bridge element and system failures have been identified, and a cost-evaluation method has been adopted. The major costs involved are the rebuilding costs, traffic delay costs, access and traffic management costs, casualty costs, repair costs and some other indirect costs. However, there has been a lack of information in evaluating the casualty costs. The paper focuses on the casualty costs and presents some simple models that can be used to evaluate such costs. In addition, several case studies have been performed using the cost models, and the results are presented. Based on the case studies, empirical costs models are proposed for evaluating the total costs of element and system failures.