Abstract:
Bridge management systems (BMS) have traditionally evaluated project alternatives by comparing benefit–cost ratios of various potential strategies and selecting the alternative that maximizes these ratios. Calculated benefits have included contributions from improved conditions and increased strength, vertical clearance, or reduced accidents. Combining these benefits into a single project benefit has been problematic because of the lack of a common scale necessary to cumulate the overall project benefit in a meaningful way. Utility functions provide a means to combine various project attributes into a single unitless benefit that offers a potential for improvement over current BMS practices. Applying utility functions to bridge management practice can extend the practice to incorporate project attributes such as scour potential, seismic risk, collision risk, and other factors that are currently excluded from project benefit calculations. This paper presents the results and findings of a pilot application of project prioritization using utility functions within the California Department of Transportation.
