A new methodology to prioritize Non-Destructive Evaluation based on risk conditions and costs assessment in the context of limited information

Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) methods allow the acquisition of a wide range of information related to the structural performance of bridges and viaducts. Consequently, the outcomes from NDE inspections are often considered in risk assessment procedures to collect detailed information about specific parameters involved in the assessment process. As an example, the defectiveness of bridges and viaducts, usually determined after a thorough visual inspection, commonly plays a key role in assessing the vulnerability of the assets and, therefore, in determining their structural risk conditions. In common practice, the planning of NDE inspections is usually borne by the authority responsible for the bridge inventory according to the prescriptions of a selected Standard and the outcomes from past risk assessments. Due to their recurrence in time and the large number of assets they commonly involve, NDE inspections represent costly operations for management authorities, both in terms of time and economic resources. Considering this, their planning should account for the expenses for their execution in addition to the outcomes from the risk classification of the assets. This paper presents a new NDE bridge inspection prioritization method that considers both risk and cost evaluations to establish inspection priorities within bridge inventories. The information gain criterion is adopted to refine the outcomes from risk assessment and prioritization process. Contemporary, the implementation of the methodology in a GIS framework, together with the use of spatial interpolation methods for data analysis, ensure high interoperability and the rendering of macro-level informative risk maps and inspection plans.