**8. Successful examples for risk-based asset Management of Transportation Infrastructure**

Many transportation agencies lack the financial and human resources to achieve their targets for the maintenance of their transportation assets and have started employing risk management in the management of transportation networks. The TRB recently produced NCHRP 08–103 in 2020. The report includes case studies in cross-asset, multi-objective resource allocation [24]. In addition, several studies were successfully conducted in the past few years to better assess the risk associated with elevated environmental challenges on various transportation assets. Collaborating with several transportation agencies, the following examples highlight the author's efforts and success for employing risk management in the asset management of federally and state transportation networks.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has a large inventory of navigation locks and dams that use gates to control water flow. Monitoring and inspecting components of locks and dams, such as Milter/Tainter gates, are generally performed by visual inspection. The visual inspection relies heavily on subjective assessments made by inspectors and significantly differ from one expert to another. Structural health monitoring (SHM) can assist making accurate condition assessment of infrastructure assets to perform their intended design function(s), based on sensor and inspection data, numerical engineering models, and statistical analyses.

SHM principles and technology provide continuous information to support maintenance, operation, and repair decisions. Though automated SHM systems are gaining acceptance, they have been applied in an ad-hoc manner to monitor navigation locks and dams. SHM uses dense sensor suites, which are designed to catch unforeseen events rather than being optimally designed to provide specific information.

Zatar et al. [25] carried out an extensive study that aimed at performing critical reviews of the effectiveness of SHM systems that have recently been employed for a few of the United States Army Corps of Engineers navigation locks and dams. **Figure 1** shows the vertically framed gates of the Miter dam and **Figure 2** shows a typical flow-chart for data analysis of dam structural health monitoring that is used for the Miter dam. The physical SHM system, sensing suite, data acquisition hardware, telemetry, and data anomalies are discussed and recommendations for improved SHM systems for the United States Army Corps of Engineers navigation locks and dams are provided.

Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation Center (MATS UTC) served as focal point in Region 3 of the United States Department of Transportation. The MATS UTC includes the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) and five states including Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Transportation infrastructure in this region, particularly concrete highway bridges, are exposed to the deleterious effects of environmental attacks, leading to environmental degradation of the concrete materials [26]. This is due to, for example, carbonation and chloride contamination that eventually break the alkali barrier in the cement matrix, and the steel reinforcement in the concrete becomes susceptible to corrosion. As a consequence, the concrete deteriorates at the reinforcement level, leading to cracking and spalling of the concrete owing to volume increase of the steel reinforcement. Such degradation is exacerbated by the application of de-icing salts on highway bridges, and the freeze–thaw and dry-wet cyclic exposures causing accelerated aging of the structure over time.

Concrete deterioration in the United States and worldwide has motivated the development of new and innovative materials and methods for structural rehabilitation, since replacement of structures would be very costly and nearly prohibited [26]. FRP composite materials in the form of fabrics, laminates, and bars have been externally bonded to concrete structures to increase structural capacity and provide longer service-life. The goal of this project was to present the technical and economical effectiveness of externally bonded FRP composites for repair and retrofit of highway infrastructure, and particularly concrete bridges [26]. The application of this technology in practice has been highly successful in West Virginia (**Figure 3**).

Composite behavior of precast Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) slabs connected to Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) I-shaped girders was examined as a potential sustainable and low-cost maintenance alternative for composite bridge construction. Two series of large-scale FRP-UHPFRC composite girders were tested monotonically under four-point

**Figure 1.** *Vertically framed Miter dam.*

*Environmentally Influenced Risk and Sustainable Management of State Controlled... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98232*

**Figure 2.**

*Typical flow-chart for data analysis of dam structural health monitoring.*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Degradation and retrofitting of highway bridges in West Virginia. (a) Spalling of concrete and exposed rebars of bridge superstructures (curtesy of WVDOT–WVDOH); (b) retrofitting of highway bridge wing walls using GFRP wraps (curtesy of WVDOT–WVDOH).*

flexural loading [27]. The test results showed promising indicators for short-span and pedestrian bridges. The developed girders were successfully employed in the construction of two demonstration pedestrian bridges in Japan. The established technology exhibited a sustainable and fast bridge construction solution in harsh environments [28].

The Region of Peel in Ontario, Canada, assesses needs and priorities across a diverse portfolio of Infrastructure that supports a variety of programs and services. These programs include solid waste management, water and wastewater treatment distribution, roadway network, and a variety of social, health and emergency services. The Region successfully integrated several efforts to enable an optimized investment methodology. The Region accounted for risk management, level of service, and life cycle management strategies to prioritize needs across its diverse infrastructure system [29].

The approach for allocating funding within the Caltrans State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) in the State of California is a great example of a multi-objective, cross-asset resource allocation approach. SHOPP funds are used for repair, preservation, and safety improvements on the California State Highway System. The SHOPP programming cycle results in a multi-year program of capital projects that achieve the performance targets specified in the TAMP [24].

Other examples for successful transportation asset management efforts include: (a) Caltrans great example for TAMP-Practical Lessons from the Loma Prieta

Earthquake where the agency defined a separate program for seismic retrofits [30]; and (b) The Sustainable Solutions Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston used a scenario-based approach to analyze the feasibility and potential risk reduction of Boston Harbor barrier systems to protect the Boston area from future flooding due to sea level rise [31].
