Residual life of historic riveted steel bridges: an analytical approach

As a consequence of the increasing traffic demand, the life of a large stock of riveted bridges that still exist throughout the world must be extended, ensuring at the same time that safety is not compromised for economic reasons. As fatigue life estimation of metal historical bridges is a key issue for managing cost-effective decisions regarding rehabilitation or replacement of existing infrastructure, there is a need to estimate how long these structures could remain in service. In this paper, a fatigue assessment of a common short-span railway bridge is analysed and assessed. Based on analytical and parametric studies, the remaining life of the bridge is presented and discussed.