00763172

Component

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is nearing completion of a three-year project to develop a new combined set of bridge load rating and design tools, to be known as Virtis and Opis, respectively. A development team led by Michael Baker Jr., Inc., is developing the systems, which are funded by the contributions of over thirty states and the Federal Highway Administration. The project is intended to replace AASHTO's aging BARS and BDS software packages with a new generation of flexible, user-friendly capabilities that will substantially enhance the value of bridge load rating data by providing convenient, organized ways to enter, manage, access, and apply the information. When the current project is complete, Virtis will be able to perform load factor ratings on most types of steel, reinforced concrete, and prestressed concrete bridges, with timber and trusses being considered for the near future. The system is designed to be adapted to load and resistance factor evaluation when the specification is approved. With a highly modular object-oriented architecture using Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) specification, the system can be expanded by sophisticated users or third-party developers to add specialized features. One important application of this architecture is the ability to inter-operate with geographic information systems and overweight permit management systems.

L-1, IBMC-011/12

English

12p

1999

Eighth Transportation Research Board Conference on Bridge Management

Figures (4) ; References (2) ; Tables (1)

Bridges; Design; Geographic information systems; Load and resistance factor design; Software packages; System architecture

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

Load ratings; Systems integration

Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls

TRIS, TRB

May 3 1999 12:00AM